surviving the world

A Day to Celebrate Mary Hambleton

Please save the date - May 10th at 3 pm

The Brotherhood Synagogue
brotherhoodsynagogue.org

28 Gramercy Park S
New York, NY 10003
(212) 674-5750

Followed by a show of Mary's work and reception at 5 pm at Max Protetch Gallery

Max Protetch Gallery

511 W 22nd St
New York, NY 10011
(212) 633-6999

"Surviving the world" was the title of Mary's first blog entry on her new web site in 2008.

Mary was diagnosed with advanced melanoma in June of 2002. She defied the odds, living a full life, though a challenging one, until Jan. 9, 2009. In those 6 plus years she had several one person shows, taught, traveled, received a Guggenheim, two Pollock-Krasners, a Gottlieb, and a Fellowship to Ballinglen Foundation in Ireland.

Strikingly, her work began to chronicle her journey of living with this disease... starting with the use of images of extinct species, and then, later, images from the innumerable scans of her body. Some of these may be seen on her website.

Mary never let her illness define her, but chose to define it instead by transforming it into art. As her own energy waned in these past few years, she took the scans of the disease that would ultimately take her, and she turned those into striking and profound images. In that sense, she had the last word, because here is her body of work - living poignant entities that tell the story of who she was.

In addition to the legacy of her work, Mary left many students and colleagues in the art world who cherished her generous, funny, and compassionate embrace of them.
- Ken Buhler

Please post your memories of Mary. You may also email images for posting to: kbuhler@earthlink.net