Featuring Maggie Raper

Maggie Raper has been working and displaying her dreamy creations for many years here in Atlanta and around the country.Her work is in numerous corporate and private collections . Let's see what she has to say.

Artist Statement

I am a collage artists. I use found images, papers, fabric and modeling paste to create a textured surface. I then do a great deal of painting with acrylic paint to bring all the diverse elements together. The pieces are finished with water-soluble crayon.

My work needs close examination to discover the diversity of the surface. From a distance, the pieces appear to be painted in traditional ways. I am seeking the element of surprise as the diversity is revealed. The pieces are done on black to give a sense of mystery.
My work today is a culmination of all my study and experience in the arts.
The collage paintings, along with my previous series of fifty-four sewn collage pieces, are now in the archives of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C


Tell me about your work? Who or what influences you and why do you create what you create?
My greatest influence was my study at the school of the Chicago Art Institute and my mentor Ouida Canandy.

Have you worked in other careers? How has your previous work life influence your art?
I have always worked as a visual artist. However, my work for six years as a sculpture student in Dallas Texas created a love of texture that you see in my work today.

What are you working on now?
I am working in abstraction with a touch of realism and three dimensional flair. These are done with a charcoal drawing and painted entirely in glazes on canvas.

What do you see as your greatest challenge as an artist?
To do good work!!! Not to please a public or to make money. To make original art with timeless quality.

If you could give one piece of advice to anyone who wants to create for a career, what would it be?
Try it all!! Keep the parts you learn that you like and make them your own.