“Pasadena Coyote” Meets “Portland Pink”
Cast Bronze 1992 – Recast 2015 | 30 in. x 35 in. x 10 in.
Cast Resin 2015 | 30 in. x 36 in. x 10 in.
© Mary Chomenko Hinckley
Mary Chomenko Hinckley
MATERIAL EVOLUTION: IMAGES & OBJECTS
URBAN COYOTES PAST + PRESENT
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work draws connections between nature, the environment, culture, time and place. Nature and civilization have met. Will they coexist?
I was commissioned to do a site-specific sculpture in Old Town Pasadena. I chose to make a bronze coyote and bronze box that I cast from an IBM printer. They were placed to stand side-by-side to ask if wildlife and humans can coexist. My goal was for a passerby to be surprised, not expecting this beautiful pest and predator on the walkway.
Often, I use repetition to explore an idea. Because a mold can be used many times, the sense of repetition and possibility play into the idea of the infinite capability of nature to reproduce. Each object is a reproduction while also being unique.
Meaning and materials are closely linked in my work. A coyote bust cast in clear pink resin offers a different meaning than the same bust in a mirror-finish, nickel-plated bronze. The pink resin summons fragility, memory, spirit and the temporary state of nature and wildlife in our increasing urban density and compression. The nickel bust portrays a determined, fierce survivor, a challenger; yet it is precious because of the gleaming reflective surface. Both sculptures are beautiful representations of nature in a cultural context. The life-sized bronze coyote cast in the 90’s, gives way to fanciful colored resin coyotes that may indicate the future of wildlife as decorative icons.
The coyote is a fascinating survivor. It is one of the largest wild animals to thrive in our urban environments. As you view these works, you may ask yourself, “How much of the wild animal spirit inhabits humans? Do we look for traces of the beast in ourselves? Is that desire? Ambition? Passion?” Coyotes, like humans, adapt and survive.
ARTIST BIO / EDUCATION
1982 Master of Fine Arts, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
1978-79 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Boston, MA
1977 Ukrainian Studies (Summer Program), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1973 Bachelor of Arts, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
1972 Brighton College of Education, Brighton, England, Exchange Program (Fall Term)
FELLOWSHIPS
1987 & 1984 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar, VA
RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Material Evolution: Images and Objects – Urban Coyotes, Past and Present, Augen Gallery, Portland , OR
2013 Gates of Venice and Beyond: Studies in Color and Pattern, Augen Gallery, Portland, OR
2012 Birds in Morocco & Geometry: New Work in Glass, Augen Gallery, Portland, OR
http://marychomenkohinckley.com/
Gallery inquiries are welcome.
