Statement
From her earliest beginnings, Marlana Stoddard Hayes has been inspired to use elements of nature in her painting practice, but now does so within a contemporary context. Over the years she has developed a cross-fielding system of information input, using elements in her garden as living subjects, along with extensive collections of artifacts and a personal reference library. Her work explores plant and biological forms that are an outgrowth of the inspiration these sources provide.
Long interested in living communities, Stoddard uses images to explore the relationship among various nested systems found in the natural world. Over the past five years, she answered the call to use spore prints from the fungi growing under her trees as a vehicle to embellish the work of her hands. Finding that the pigmentation qualities of the spores could be massaged by timing and temperature, she has refined their use to augment the chemical manipulations she employs in her work.
Trained as a calligrapher in her foundation years, she has always recognized the power and transmissive energy of each human nervous system, and how losing contact with this integral part of our humanity may leave us compromised. It is her personal mission to continue to inspire and teach others that by using simple tools, along with refined powers of mental concentration, they can reach higher levels of performance in everyday tasks.
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Biography
- 1957
- 1960
- 1964
- 1967
- 1970
- 1975
- 1978
- 1980
- 1983
- 1984
- 1989-90
- 1990
- 1998
- 2000-03
- 2002
- 2004-11
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Born
Marlana born in Ottumwa, Iowa. Raised in Oskaloosa, where the rural setting informed her aesthetic.
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Wyoming
Moves with family to Laramie, Wyoming for father’s academic appointment at UW School of Law. Spends time in Medicine Bow Range and in the Colorado Rockies. Inherits father’s dream of living in the American West. Secretly draws in closets and on walls to the consternation of parents.
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Kansas City Art Institute
Enters foundation program at Kansas City Art Institute in place of senior year of high school. Studies calligraphy with Carl Kurtz and lithography with Bill McKim, (in the school of Thomas Hart Benton). Adopts the habit of daily journal entries with imagery.
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Austria
Travels for study in Vienna, Austria. Notes the use of gardens in health care settings and for personal use in most homes.
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BFA
BFA, Colorado State University. Also camp counselor with Cheley Co. Camps in Estes Park and Glenhaven, Co.
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Lithography, Mid-Four Biennial
Lawrence Lithography Workshop Grant, Lawrence, KS. (Prints from the period acquired for the permanent collection of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas.)
Work included in Mid-Four Biennial, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.
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Grumbacher Gold Medal
Receives the Grumbacher Gold Medal in Watercolor, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS.
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MAIS
Completes MAIS from Marylhurst University. Thesis: “Why Drawing Matters: an examination of drawing through a spiritual lens.” Work shown at St. John’s College, Santa Fe.