Martha Wakefield

Martha Wakefield is an award-winning painter and photographer.  Her work has been shown in over 75 exhibits across the country including the Fitchburg Art Museum, Wheaton College, Lasell University and the Griffin Museum of Photography.  Awarded artists residencies include Weir Farm National Historic Site in CT, Vermont Studio Center and Orquevaux, France.  Wakefield’s work has been featured in several publications including Artscope and Watercolor Artists magazine.  And she has written many articles on artists and techniques for The Palette Magazine.  Her paintings are in numerous corporate and private collections internationally. Since 2012 Wakefield has been teaching art classes and intensive workshops on painting, color theory and creativity.   She loves empowering artists of all levels in strengthening their artistic voices. Wakefield is represented by Hera gallery of Wakefield, RI and Powers Gallery of Acton, MA.

My work is an investigation of the fragility of memory.  I am intrigued by how memory morphs from persistent vividness to fleeting passages to total loss.  Memory has no physicality: we cannot hold it in our hands, yet we carry it with us.  It has no weight yet can weigh us down.   We may bury a recollection deep inside until a scent or voice or place conjures its power to rise.  Memory changes with each recall becoming altered narratives.  Through oil paint, cold wax medium, graphite, pigment sticks, and crayon I explore its power and mysterious fragility.  My process starts with disorder eventually finding order.  I scribble graffiti-like marks as if journaling in symbols.  These drawings are followed by layering, composing, and then scraping the surface to reveal moments, strange journeys of the mark and the history of work.  It is storytelling, sensitive yet raw.