Gathering Fragments Exhibition Reception

Join us at Tacoma Community College’s Gig Harbor Campus to celebrate Gathering Fragments, mixed media collage by Margaret Doty.  The July 26 Artist Reception will include live entertainment, and the exhibit is on display at TCC Gig Harbor, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m., through Aug 17.

Artist Statement

Dreamlife, nature and wildlife greatly influence the imagery and symbolism in my work. My creative influences come from both my extensive globetrotting and living for more than 30 years in the Pacific Northwest. The people, cultures, textiles, architecture and crafts from diverse areas ignite my creativity and stimulate my imagination.

In forming my art pieces, the compositions evolve without a predetermined end as the convergence of my carefully chosen materials helps guide an intuitive, creative process. I gather a piece, a fragment, an image and that leads me. I like to use imagery from the environment by observing, photographing and collecting. I gather scraps, remnants, magazine pictures; wherever my instincts take me. I enjoy discovering new ways of translating these images so that the ideas, memories and images I have can be transformed into new artistic expressions. This allows me to create a link between my past, present and towards the future. My background is in printmaking and influences my mixed media work. I use different printmaking techniques to create my collage papers. I am particularly interested in techniques that allow chance and accident. I am drawn to the Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi, where beauty is appreciated that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. I enjoy using techniques that are more painterly and expressive such as monoprinting and gelli prints. The collage process incorporates layered artwork of paper, prints, paint, textiles, mark-making and found objects. My collages become visual narratives, inviting the viewer into my world of storytelling. The abstraction in my work is often based on the natural world.