Mango Tango Art Gallery opens the engaging Stylized and Abstract Art Show by Mary Rodriguez with a reception from 5:30-8:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 10. Her 14 mixed-media paintings range in size from 4-inch squares to 36 by 48 inches. The dynamic music of Sammy Watts and Ras Abu will add to the festivities in the gallery parking lot where appetizers and spirits will be served.
Artist Mary Rodriguez counts her father’s military postings as providing a path to first enjoy art and then to create art. Life in New York offered visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim. Europe afforded a chance to visit all the great museums. She remembers the awe of seeing Rodin’s “The Thinker” in Paris; frescoes by Tiepolo in Wurzburg, Germany; and Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” in Oslo.
Not only did she experience great art firsthand, but she also enjoyed art classes on weekends and after school because each military base offered crafts and fine art classes. As a young teenager she completed studio work at the El Paso Museum of Art.
When Mary later married classical guitarist, Rodrigo Rodriguez (https://rodrigorodriguez.net), she became his manager for his global concerts for over 20 years. She designed his album covers with stylized guitars. This both helped sell his music and create a market for her winning guitar paintings.
That demand for her work wooed her back to paint again.
She still accompanies her husband on music tours, but the time-consuming booking of venues is no longer her job. She paints. Her time away from full-time painting gives her a renewed sense of purpose.
She describes her emotional response to the art process: “When I go into my art room and smell the paint mixed with a beautiful perfume oil called Rose & Ivy, it both elevates and calms me at the same time.
“Each time I start a painting, I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing, but I’m anticipating something wonderful and amazing is going to happen. I gravitate to creating textured forms, both stylized and abstract. My love of music and flowers inspires many works.”
The show can be viewed on the gallery’s website: www.mangotangoart.com and will be on view at the gallery until the last week of January.
For more information, call 340-777-3060 or email mangotango3000@gmail.com.
