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 Pulled by the full moon, influenced by the mirth of being
Sunday's child, and born into a creative family of artists, inventors, and
totally mad wanderers, MerryJoy's earliest memories are of the colour of the
sky during a tornado she saw through a jalousie window when she was less than
two years old. Colours and shape stayed in her head from those extremely early
years, along with the pungent scent of her mother's oil paints, which were
often oozing off a pallette on the kitchen table.
Her mother told me a
story of taking the three-year-old MJ with her while she taught a kindergarten
class, where MJ would draw animal figures—mostly frog-like—on the
wall in an alcove... much to the consternation of the school's headmistress. A
few years later she was drawing on any sort of paper she could find, from paper
bags to newsprint, creating with crayons and pencils all manner of birds and
tigers and insects and frogs and frogs and frogs. And frogs. (Rumour has it the
child believed God is a Frog.) She spent many hours doodling in the margins of
notebooks during grammar school, resulting in rulers snapped across her fingers
and stern reprimands to ‘pay attention.’
Paying attention to
arithmetic and religion just didn't fill up MerryJoy's senses like the golden
eyes of a reptile or the sweep of a witch's gown could. Her visual brain
created pictures in her head when words were spoken, thus she began to giggle
to herself at inappropriate times—or so it appeared to teachers and other
pupils. She simply saw their words in pictures. Carrying on the family
tradition of following one’s own muse and ignoring what reasonable people
demanded, she sought the company of books and crayons and wild animals and her
wilder imagination. And frogs. That has been her life since it began, and will
be so until she wanders off to the stars.
MerryJoy in
her workspace in 1981 |
Below are a few surviving
drawings from her childhood and some poster art and watermedia paintings of her
early twenties.
For inquiries contact
Cameron & Associates. All
content copyrighted by MaryJoy Martin, a.k.a. MerryJoy. Please obtain written
permission or a contract from the artist or her
representatives before using
images. |
Froggy by
MerryJoy, about age six |
Tiger by
MerryJoy, age eight (pencil and crayon) |
Timeless by
MerryJoy, age 16 (graphite). This portrait of a Victorian man derived from an
image the artist saw in her head, in her dreams, of whom she created a number
of stories. |
Raven Totem
by MerryJoy, 1977 (poster) |
Prairie
Thunder by MerryJoy, 1979 (poster) |
St.
George's Defeat by MerryJoy 1978 |
Swordfish
by MerryJoy 1978 |
From
Darkness Came Life by MerryJoy 1978, a Limited Edition Print of
600 |
Argus by
MerryJoy 1983 — a 6x6 foot installation at Rockfort, IL, consisting of
eight individually framed pieces
(watermedia) |
THE MENDOTA
by MerryJoy © 1979.
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A Grander
Gander by MerryJoy 1988 (watermedia) |
A Grander
Gander and Son by MerryJoy 1992 (watermedia). This was the second version of
the older painting, now including the offspring of the Gander who sits in
mid-air. |
Love Birds
by MerryJoy 1998 (watermedia) |
Heron
Spirit by MerryJoy 1998 (acrylic painted on a
tambourine) |
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