The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Mary Skrenta
MaterialsmithColumbus Ohio 43219 United States Cell Phone: 740-739-7331 Birthday: October 19, 1966 Website: Mary Skrenta, MaterialSmith
Bio
Mary Skrenta is a multi-media artist and craftsperson. She grew up in the shadow of the New York City skyline but left home at a young age to spend the early part of her life exploring and learning. After graduating from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio with a BFA in Studio Arts and a BA in Art Therapy, she went on to earn her MFA at Columbus College of Art & Design.
As a fine artist, Mary uses a combination of experimental and traditional media to create work that provokes thought, reflects on human metaphysical evolution, and questions notions of value. She is influenced by nature, philosophy, and ageism in contemporary society. As a craftsperson, she creates jewelry that transcends superficiality in its unique reflection on deeper issues, questioning capitalistic values.
She has exhibited her art across the United States, is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, and is the first adjunct professor in the history of CCAD to earn the annual Teaching Excellence Award (2018-2019).
She is equally passionate about teaching, making, and living mindfully. She believes each practice informs the other, and that sharing the gift of creativity is a vocation, not a job. She has experienced firsthand the power of art to heal and raise consciousness and is dedicated to helping others realize that awareness. She teaches various media and disciplines in her studio and the greater Columbus community. She is a founding member of the artists’ collective MAKE. (Mindful Artists Knowing Existence) whose mission is to explore creativity as a tool to shift consciousness.
Mary is a lifelong learner and the proud mother of two amazing humans, both attending college. In addition to art, she enjoys music, drumming, singing, dancing, yoga, hiking, exploring, reading, nature, laughter, mindfulness, and compassion.
Artist Statement
I am interested not in what art is, but in what it does.
I am curious about notions of value and cultural standards in an attempt to understand the complexity of the human condition existing within social constructs. I am provoked by cultural conditioning that trains us to value an artificial version of the human state. What we value is a reflection of our social conditioning, and I am particularly interested in our constructed value systems relating to the term beauty. I am inspired and influenced by the natural world.
I am a MaterialSmith.
My unconventional forms are the product of an unconventional process using unconventional materials. Paramount to my work process are the thoughts I wish to provoke, and my materials become the dialect with which I express those ideas.
The transformation of materials mimics the transformation of a psychological state in response to cultural and societal influences. Social constructs press upon us; when we can bear no more, we push back. Art is my weapon.
Process is Philosophy
I make because I live.
I live because I make.