GAZING HEART: Mary Morrison

Gazing Heart is Mary Morrison's second solo exhibition with &Gallery.

Orginally from the Outer Hebrides much of Mary's work draws inspiration from the space, light and elemental qualities which are unique to the islands. Her work suggests liminal spaces, edges, tidal lines – always shifting. She evokes a sense of place and natural forms through the use of materials which include oil, pigment and beeswax. Fluid paint effects often combine with graphic elements and annotation relating to mapping, measuring and music, creating an additional visual language and tension within the paintings. 

“I am continually inspired by relationships between the image and written word, in particular poetry. The exhibition title ‘Gazing Heart’ is from a line in a poem by W.B. Yeats ‘In Memory of Major Robert Gregory’ about the death of an artist friend of his in the first world war."

"This phrase Gazing Heart came to me through another poet, Seumas Heaney. Knowing I was an artist, Seumas wrote this inscription to me in a copy of his book ‘Sweeney Astray - ‘To Mary Morrison and her ‘gazing heart’ which in turn led me to the source work by W.B. Yeats.

I treasure this inscription and have considered the phrase ‘the gazing heart’ for many years. It has particularly resonated with me in this last year, with major life shifts and losses which have made me reflect more deeply on the process of making work as an artist. I interpret this beautiful phrase in different ways, but in relation to my work it is about an intensity of gaze that goes beyond the merely optical or physical. It is about the inner gaze and recognising the direction our heart is gazing in and how what we love, what matters to us, will determine who we are. "