Mary Wyrick
Artist Statement
Paintings from this series are based on images of wrestling. I travelled to Mexico in the seventies and met a student who was working as a Lucha Libre wrestler to cover college expenses. Many wrestlers wear masks, he said, because they need other employment to make ends meet and want to hide their identities. Much wrestling at that time was family entertainment, often staged in yards and public spaces. The masks are personally and socially significant, reflecting Catholic, Mayan and Aztec cosmology. Removal of the mask in the ring is a serious rite of defeat and humiliation. At the same time, the mask allowed everyday people to try on alternative identities.
After taking a decades long break from being a wrestling fan, I returned to my ectachrome slides of live wrestling and black and white images from old Lucha Libre wrestling magazines. I am also using conventions of posed portraiture to explore the obsolescence of fixed individuality, femininity, and masculinity.
Art work info:
Title: “El Santo”
Date: 2014
Size: 12” x 12” x 1” framed
Medium: Acrylic on Paper
Price: $200.00
Originally from North Carolina, I received a Painting BFA at UNC-Chapel Hill. I taught Art and Spanish at Ann Chesnutt Junior High public school in Fayetteville, NC. I earned a Masters in Art Education at Appalachian State University and directed the University Gallery for several years, starting the first outdoor sculpture competition that is now in its 37th year. After earning a PhD in Art Education at Penn State, I took a job for 20 years as Professor in the SUNY Buffalo State Art Education Department in New York. I retired in 2011 and am currently a full-time artist near Gibsonville, NC.
Website: mary-wyrick.squarespace.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.l.wyrick
Instagram: www.instagram.com/wyrick/
- Framed: 12 x 12 x 1 in
- Created: 2014
- Collections: CVA Member's Gallery