Flight
Genre cover by Mary Amato
Why is this piece your Trace Fossil?
“For years, I struggled with perfectionism and didn’t give myself permission to get messy with my art. That mindset kept me tied down and unfulfilled. About three years ago, I worked actively to break free of this by choosing to play with an ancient-looking nib pen and a bottle of black ink; I stopped trying to control my lines and started expressing my emotions through the lines. Flight is the trace fossil of this journey: on a piece of fragile paper, a figure takes wing and flies, leaving behind a shadow of her former self.”
For multi-disciplinary artist Mary Amato, making art is a psychological and spiritual impulse. She creates to explore meaning and to honor the transcendent. She is the co-founder of Firefly Shadow Theater, a company that explores storytelling with cut paper, light, and the human body, and she teaches art at the Montclair Art Museum. As a teacher, she specializes in working with adults who have cognitive disabilities or a fear of creative expression. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Lumina, Consilience, Quarter Press, Blue Mesa Review, Pulse, Peatsmoke Journal, 100 Word Story, New Note Poetry, SoFloPoJo, Viewless Wings, Sheepshead Review, HeartWood Literary Magazine, Unsung Hero, The Washington Post, Mothering, and Muse. www.maryamato.com