by Anna Muir
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I first met Mariette in 1982 at a local nuclear disarmament group. She had brought with her a folio of drawings and paintings she had made on the subject of the arms race. I was thunderstruck and thrilled to find an artist of great skill who dared to confront with wide-open eyes the unspeakable horrors of the nuclear age, but who at the same time offered hope, humanity, sensitivity, good sense.
Shortly afterwards, I visited
her house where I saw her fine portraits and poetic weavings. In me the
weavings evoked musical instruments, lyres, landscapes, ships, birds and
seemed to be about to soar - singing - into the sky. They are arresting
visions of harmony and grace.
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Over the years since that momentous first meeting, my interest in and admiration for Mariette's work has never faltered. She recognises the sickness of our materialist society but is uncompromising in her refusal to catch any of the symptoms. Her creative work reflects the integrity of her life and there is no conflict at all between her life, beliefs and her art. A fresh avenue of expression opened up for Mariette 3 or 4 years ago, when she became the illustrator for "Conserve" - an inspiring periodical, published by the Victorian Department. of Conservation & Environment. This gave her a new opportunity to exercise her keen intelligence and latent visual wit and humour, distilling abstract ideas into powerful symbolic images. As you can see, she has an inexhaustible imagination and an uncanny ability to combine two separate concepts into one telling image. Although "Conserve" lost its funding after the last state election, the YWCA supported a further two issues and in the meantime two other women's magazines discovered and now utilise Mariette's talents. I feel there is still a great deal of illustrative work to come from Mariette's pens and brushes.
Much of the mainstream "high" art of the last few decades, the paintings showing in the Flinders Lane galleries and that win prizes awarded by the NGV, set out to destroy perception of the real world, meaning and relationships. I have, in the last few years been to many exhibitions where all one sees is the void, black absurdity and formlessness. We could easily say that this reflects insecurity, economic recession or social disintegration. but every period of history has had its threats to survival whether beasts of prey, wars, epidemics, earthquakes, floods, droughts, tyrants, cyclones or disease. Modern communication brings us the bad news very quickly but it also enables us to make a rapid response with aid.
Mariette has made a deliberate choice. She refuses to be paralysed by her anger or despair. She stings us out of our reveries, shakes our complagency and reawakens our compassion. with consummate artistry, her works speak to our deepest yearnings: for a world free from the fear of war, free from oppression and exploitation, religious and racial intolerance ; free from pollution and the wasteful misuse of nature's bounties and a world where woman's crowning glory is no longer her hair but where she is accorded dignity and respect as a thinking human being. Mariette brings us visions of love and worlds we can only dream of. Mariette has chosen life. Let us celebrate it with her.
