Bio
Margaret Jamison was born and raised in Walla Walla and graduated from Whitman College in 1974 with a degree in Art/Art History.  She earned an M.A. in Art Education from Seattle University in 2000.  After living in New York and Seattle she returned to Walla Walla after 30 years, in 2003, as Executive Director of Carnegie Art Center.  She retired after three years in order to paint full time.

Margaret has occupied a wide variety of creative and art-related jobs in the fields of advertising, book and magazine production, illustration, graphic design, writing, editing, and desktop publishing.  She has had several sets of fine art silkscreen prints produced and marketed nationally.  As a practicing artist, she has developed technical dexterity and familiarity with a wide range of materials and art-making processes, including cut paper, painting with acrylics, tempera and watercolor, drawing with pencil, ink, Prismacolor and scratchboard, and handbuilt ceramics with majolica glazes.  She has also experimented with block printing, collagraph and monotype.

In addition, she has dedicated much of her professional life to sharing her profound delight in creative exploration with students of all ages.  As a certified art teacher, Margaret taught in private schools in Seattle for 10 years and has worked with adults through specialized retreats and workshops.

Statement
Being a designer and “serial thinker” I enjoy the challenge of using a single  form in as many ways as I can imagine until I exhaust either myself or the idea.  In this way, a series becomes like word game or anagram – how many ways can I use this shape to say something about my experience?  How many visual “words” can I find? 

Previous series have included scratchboard goddess figures, small acrylic paintings of archaic female forms, geometric tile designs, pen-and-ink black dogs, watercolor cross variations, and many hands in various media from clay to Prismacolor and beaded and embroidered paper.

Currently I am working on two themes.  “Heartwork” is a collection of 24”x24” acrylic and mixed media paintings.  As our hearts are the containers for our experiences, the heart shape in these paintings becomes a container for my ideas and an expression of the internal landscape in which I walk. The tone of these paintings varies from the sardonic to the deeply personal, to simply decorative.  They depict many stages in my journey and much work that has been done in my heart.  These have been shown in two solo exhibitions, at Walla Walla Community College and at Northstar Winery, where they remain on display throughout the summer.

A second series explores the idea of psychological archetypes and aspects of the feminine as my own “Tribal Elders” in a simplified kimono shape.  Pieces are on paper, 4’x6’, and are in a variety of media.  These will be shown at the Pendleton Center for the Arts in January/February of 2008.

Links

Contact
mgjamison@msn.com

Events
"Inner Circle:  The Archetype as Tribal Elder"
Pendleton Center for the Arts, Pendleton, OR | January 25 - February 22, 08
Artist opening January 25 from 5:30-7 pm
Margaret Jamison has created a series of large painted "robes" to represent
the cast of characters universal to the human psyche. From Healer, Teacher
and Storyteller to Victim, Visionary and Addict, these pieces speak to - and
from - the deep places within us which ultimately govern our decisions,
behavior, and the way we live our lives. While some of the robes share a
similar palette or medium, each is unique in its visual language and spirit
and media include watercolor, acrylic, tempera, collage, oil pastel, and
encaustic.