Spotlight: Mary Margaret Blum ‘18
Photo courtesy of Khun Minn Ohn
By Daniella Snyder, Editor-in-Chief
Mary Margaret Blum, ‘18, the Juried Student Exhibition third prize winner, explains the story behind her painting, “Self Portrait (Underwater Childhood).”
“It took me about a week and a half to make. I didn’t expect other people to connect with it. Honestly, I was shocked to be recognized at all and so excited to receive third place, which is an honor,” Blum said.
“For me, the piece is real, although abstract. It recalls my family pool. Because I was the youngest child, I was often in our pool alone, which was scary. I almost died in that pool.”
“In this painting I have reconstructed the empty pool as a metaphor for me, collecting those memories through the movement of the paint,” she said.
“But, the pool was never actually empty. In the painting you can tell it’s not empty: there are flowers, bugs, water, and me. I am there, and by painting it, I let people join me.”
“I had never made an abstract painting before, but the process is like nothing else,” she said.
