This year, a featured artist in HPA’s annual Alu Mai scholarship art auction is alumna Margo Ray ’94. Ray is a Hawaii-born visual artist whose work blends printmaking, collage, and installation. With a background that includes residencies and exhibitions across North America, her art often reflects the landscapes and layered histories of rural Hawai‘i. Her unique visual language explores themes of isolation, belonging, and transformation in nature and human relationships. She holds an MFA from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec, a BA in Studio Arts from University of Hawai’i at Hilo, as well as a certificate from Peking University’s summer program in Beijing, China. She lives in Waimea, where she co-owns Island Eclectic, an art handling business. For more, visit www.margoray.com.
A lot of your work (including the piece included in the Alu Mai auction this year) is mixed media. How do you decide which materials to use in a piece? Is there a story behind how you select or source them?
Photography has always been an integral part of my art practice. I started out studying the photo transfer processes in traditional printmaking and have evolved into the way I work now. Printing photos that I take on Japanese kozo paper, collaging them onto painted canvases and adding layers of textured papers and fibers. This allows me to work more spontaneously and on a larger scale. I love to mix realistic photographic images with the rich textures of fibers and paint.
How do you think about the interplay of natural and man-made subjects in your work?
The primary subject matter in my work has always been the tension of man-made structures in the natural environment. They are symbolic to me of my shared human experience and are often in a state of beautiful decay being taken back by nature.
Are there any particular materials, techniques, or subjects you’re excited to explore next?
We are spending more time in Arashiyama, Kyoto Japan and I am very inspired by the abundance of modern and historical infrastructure amidst the beautiful natural scenery there.