Mona Waterhouse

web site: monawaterhouse.com
art@monawaterhouse.com

Artists's Statement: LIFE SERIES

The ideas and motifs of my most recent work are based on the seed.

Seeds are my source of inspiration in an attempt to depict life and find a visual analogy for it. I am in awe of the diversity of the natural world and have grown to respect its laws and their significance to humankind.

In the seed, I have discovered beauty in astonishing shapes, colors and materials. I have learnt to respect their resilience and vulnerability and how they reflect the progression and transformation seen in natural growth systems. I have come to understand that their evolution, natural selection, adaptation and means of survival mirror our own.

I have frequently looked at the seeds from a microscopic point of view, often using fragments of them in my work, in order to express their simple existence. Many of the motifs are based on longitudinal sections through a seed, embryo, fruit or nutlet. Some others are exterior views of seeds, partial or whole.

I use handmade paper, pigment and wax to unify the work. I build up and then tear down the surface texture trying to create an illusion of earth, the cosmos, geology and aging.

I have not strived for scientific accuracy, but tried to integrate my observations with an artist's vision. Fed by nature, this work is an attempt to translate my love for it and wonder of it, into art.

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Artist's Background

A native of Sweden, Mona has lived and studied in Sweden, England and the U.S.A. She is a full-time artist, now living and working in Peachtree City, GA.

Mona holds Bachelor and Masters degrees in fine arts and art education from the University of Massachusetts. She graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Mona has been a practicing artist and art instructor for more than twenty years. She has taught art in public and private schools (K-12), as well as at the university level. She has worked as an Artist in Residence for the past eleven years and has created more than eighty site specific art installations and public art commissions for schools and public buildings in Georgia and South Carolina. Her public art commissions include Hartsfield International Airport, Atlanta GA, Spoleto Arts Festival U.S.A. SC., and Peachtree City Library, GA.

She has received the following awards: "Outstanding Georgia Woman in the Visual Arts" by the State of Georgia, 1997, and Individual Artist’s Grants from Fulton County Arts Council and the Georgia Council for the Arts, 1994.

She has been published in Chicago Art Review, Fiberarts Design Book Four and Five, Progress in Paper Recycling, International Association of paper Artists, Hand Papermaking Magazine: "The Art of Mona Waterhouse," and Who's Who of American Women, as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles. Mona participates in international competitions, and individuals and corporations in this country and abroad collect her art.

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