Artist / Educator
I have been a professional visual artist for all of my adult career, I am a studio arts and design educator, communication designer, and illustrator. As a fine artist I primarily work with oil on panel and pencil on Mylar. My work can be conceptual, referencing scientific illustration or hidden allegory; inspired by the golden age of exploration, nature and the stories that weave our human selves into our environment. I am passionate about learning. Feel free to contact me with inquiries: margaret@margaretmccullough.com
In 2022 I received my Master of Arts (MA) from Rhode Island School of Design + Art in Art + Design Education. My thesis:, which can be downloaded (here), was researched and written on potential outcomes of cross-disciplinary learning of ecology/nature and visual art and design. I have a BFA in Communication Design from Metropolitan State University of Denver where I received awards for two juried shows. my post-graduation career includes illustration, book design, typography, brand systems, and packaging. Painting has remained a constant through the years and in 2012, upon finishing a three-year rebranding and marketing project, it became a much larger focus. I teach art and design classes, seasonally, to mostly high school students.
Statement
Years ago a film maker friend described the camera as a box (trap) that forces separation between subject and viewer, and that in doing so, it allows a skilled photographer to capture “a something” that is shifted, “a something” that is special and unavailable to the naked eye. It occurred to me that painting (and drawing) is the most dramatic separation device available, ideas of storage and retrieval, of self, other and viewpoint have time and physical translation as trap rather than a literal box to make the capture. And so I focus on inner mechanism for separation and work to that point. A soft focus edging the boundary of awareness; too lax and it verges on unconscious day-dreaminess, too aware and judgment and strategy creep in. That this body of work has been focused on this point, on the trap (illusive though it sometimes is), allows me to observe how subjects like fear and loss often shift in this space into “a something” unavailable in immediate consideration.
This body of work is both structured and ephemeral moving between internal workings of the brain (perceptions both as individuals and as society) with its slippery storage and retrieval, and plays on visual language, history and meaning (for example in “Washing Day” the wallpaper stands in for the human condition, depicting a classic scene of domesticity, while the crow in front stands in for nature and it’s view of human triviality, natures very otherness is beauty). There are some other general rules within this body of work, keeping gender/age/race at a distance when possible, exploration of repetitive pattern and form and in some cases size, horizon line, and color palette all pushing for comparisons or relationship.
In preparation for painting there is, almost always, lots of research, for me this includes biological and historical research (both written and visual,) drawn studies, and field research. This preparatory process sometimes reveals itself in the end work resulting as multiples, shifting points of view, macro and micro subjects and editing choices towards visual language.
