“Making art it is very meditative and quiet.
I work in complete silence.
As I work, I allow my mind to wander, daydream, and slow down to the point that I am able to dive deep into my subconscious and pick up shreds of imagery.”
— Mary Louise Geering
TV: Hi Mary Louise, I’m glad to have the chance to dig into your practice. We’ve worked together a few times over the last several years and it’s always fun to learn the stories behind your work. Your studio is filled with a wide variety of different bodies of work you’ve made over the years, some of it personal, some of it commentary, some explicit, some whimsical. I’m curious about what feeling you have when you make art and what the overall experience is like?
MLG: For me, 90% of the time, making art it is very meditative and quiet. I work in complete silence. In fact, I cannot work with music or sound unless I am cleaning up my studio or doing something like sanding. Even then, I prefer silence. As I work, I allow my mind to wander, daydream, and slow down to the point that I am able to dive deep into my subconscious and pick up shreds of imagery.
TV: That does sound meditative. I find it interesting that different artists have such drastically disparate working styles. It’s important to know yourself and what works for you, and it can take a long time to figure that out. Are there specific materials, colors, or images that recur in your work?
MLG: My idea comes first, and then I choose the materials, which may range from straw to glass to resin to sawdust to found objects to steel to photographs. Generally the work is mixed media with archetypal animal references or ancient forms like candles, combs, body parts, eggs, or shells merged with industrial and commercial elements.
TV: What does a typical day in your studio look like? Are you in the studio daily?
MLG: I try to work four full days per week in my studio. It takes an hour to walk there, which is good cardio, and I usually take the bus back. I also have a notebook next to my bed as sometimes I see new work in a semi-dream state and try to jot it down
TV: Some of my favorite pieces that you’ve made are non-traditional techniques with recognizable materials. Aside from the physical process, I know a lot of personal thought goes into your practice. Is there a question that your art is trying to answer? What kind of message do you want your art to convey?
MLG: I think of my work as a surrealistic equation with the solution being a glimpse of something true, but consciously unknown. I would like the viewer to follow a chain of rational associations and then have their comprehension short-circuited. This is where the gut steps in and the context goes deeper. I often use humor to draw in the audience and cloak the seriousness of the idea.
TV: I’ve definitely seen that, like with the work that was in Perfect Strangers, the show we did in 2022. Your piece 12 Years Old consists of a replica you made of a skateboard you had growing up covered in oversized insects. I think that work was very successful. Have you had work that you see as an artistic failure?
MLG: I made a very large sculpture that was a spherical, open lattice with butterfly forms. It was made of steel, foam, and hydrocal and completely covered with a coat of wild rice mixed with glue. I did not know that all rice contains larvae. Wild rice is technically a grass, but also contains larvae. After about a year, I noticed small crumbs under the piece and then discovered that the grains were degrading due to the worms emerging. I had, by the way, covered the sculpture in several coats of polyurethane to seal it. I eventually cut up the piece with a Sawzall and placed the sections on the roof of my studio for a week when it was below freezing. I had researched the issue and found rice should be frozen for several weeks to kill all the eggs. I thought I would make smaller wall sculptures with the new portions. Unfortunately, the larvae were still alive and continued to crawl out of the surface. I had to throw it away. Fortunately, I was able to include it in a solo show in Crown Heights in 2017 before the infestation was evident. Incidentally, short grain white rice is stable with no larvae. I made a piece coated with it in 2009 and it is still in perfect condition.
TV: That is kind of a hilarious and amazing story. In a way it sounds like a performance piece. How do you keep persevering during through these kinds of struggles, between shows or fixed deadlines or outside encouragement?
MLG: I am very fortunate to now be in a place where I can truly focus on what matters to me without having an outside job. I try to practice meditation and gratitude daily which has led to a deep satisfaction in the present moment. I believe my individual artwork is the deepest expression of my humanity that I can offer in this short lifetime. It does not have a wide audience and I am OK with that. I do get frustrated and discouraged occasionally, but have gotten very good at getting past it and moving forward. Action creates motivation and it is essential to be at the studio and dive in whether I am motivated or not.
TV: That is truly profound and quite an accomplishment. I think achieving that mindset is more difficult and important than anything else an artist could achieve.