NAME: Maryann Worrell
BIRTH PLACE:
BIRTH DATE: 11.15.69
BIOGRAPHY
Maryann Worrell
Born in Philadelphia to young parents who put a “blinking-eyes” mobile over my crib and had Janis Joplin on the Hi-Fi, music and art have always surrounded me, and I have always had a strong need to create. Until the last few years, however, life had been a long and windy journey of many struggles, including bad relationships, financial problems, and my own battle with cancer at 26. I didn’t return to the need to create until my early 30’s, and thought I would become an art teacher, graduating from Arcadia University in 2005. It was through this education, however, that I found my own need to be a working artist, and my desire to express my own struggles, as well as the struggles of other women, through my work.
My artistic interests began in architecture and painting, but it was in Arcadia’s metals program where I found my challenge and medium. Cold and smooth, metal can be curvaceous, organic, and feminine, or sharp, sterile, and rough. I combine it with found objects to create assemblage art that links the past to the present. Mixing these materials, I strive to create work that compels people to look closer, that changes their environment, and that confronts them with issues that are complex and, at times, unsettling.
My work tells the stories of women in flux, women making changes and hard choices, whether they be about marriage, having children, or battling illness. It also tells the stories of the expectations society has and the judgments it makes on women for their choices. For me, the stories are as malleable as the materials I work with, soldered together and mixed with pieces of other stories, changing with each day and each choice.
Maryann Worrell is an artist, designer and instructor who has recently set up her workshop, “She Rocks Studio,” in Phoenixville, PA.. A BFA recipient from Arcadia University, Maryann is currently exhibiting in Philadelphia and teaching Metalsmithing at Arcadia University,Wayne Art Center, and The Phoenix Village Art Center.
