Maud Starr Art...
I started to draw as a young child in the backyard tent under a magnificent willow tree in the somewhat innocent 1960's.I enjoyed my solitude.Creating stories from my active imagination and illustrating them was a glorious pasttime like no other. This lead me to research art projects at the local library and revel in nylon stocking dolls and flour and water dough pins and homemade books..Fast forward to young adulthood and four years at the Ontario College of Art and Design where editorial illustration caught my interest and high realism paintings were the order of the day. Adult years brought survival pressures..and art took a back seat to life. In 1999 art became integral again to my sense of peace,identity.. and with it the pleasant discovery that it was at the core of who I am. I carved out a space on an old workbench in my basement and painted again..full throttle! Collage and mixed media brought new freedom and delight in personal expression -and permitted me the time and space to explore my creative side once more. I have been a puppeteer (creating my own stage,puppets and company) a paper mache artist, a painter ,an art educator, and now a professional artist selling internationally as well as in regional galleries! Old antique portraits have always facinated me and offer a means to connect with and preserve the past. Incorporating these precious anonymous images into my art seems to sustain a historical element -and promote new life to what is often hidden or disposable ephemera.
My studio is a sanctuary-filled with old distressed dolls, weathered ephemera ,and space to create and hang my work in progress( no worry about mess!)
My house in the country offers another sort of inspiration -waking to clucking chickens,grunting pot belly pigs and a couple of mischievious goats..