Amy Marques | Finding Art

Artist Statement

Most of my artwork is a mix of collage and painting that makes use of found objects, torn pieces of text, and covering of texts to leave found poetry. "Umbrellas" and "Serene Love" are part of my "On the House" collection, a series of found poems created directly onto an old copy of a 1949 novel by Mary Lasswell. The novel is full of humor, and while each page is stand-alone, the overall tone is of humor, leaning into nonsense and whimsy. The work is done directly on the book. The scraps from other art projects (torn bits of paper, leftover bits of paint, leftover paint on the palette (just a glorified paper plate) fill my table and make their way into my journal where they become new pieces such as the blue and golden girls, the deep voiced bird, and more of a detour. I'm fascinated with how scraps can become new things and how meaning can be re-imagined from what is left behind.

Artist Biography

Amy Marques grew up between languages and places and learned, from an early age, the multiplicity of narratives. She’s lived in cities and towns in more than one continent and found, ultimately, more similarities than differences between places she’s called home. She’s collected degrees and loves to work in the frontiers of fields of knowledge. It’s no wonder that she blends genres and enjoys hybrid work and a tendency to work not only outside the box, but to resist boxes whenever possible.

Known to call books friends, Amy is on a first name basis with many fictional characters. She’s been nominated for multiple awards, longlisted twice in Wigleaf 50, and has visual art, poetry, and prose published in journals such as Streetcake Magazine, South Florida Poetry Journal, Fictive Dream, Unlost, Ghost Parachute, BOOTH, Bright Flash Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Gone Lawn. She is author of the found poetry book PARTS and editor and artist for Duets anthologies. More at The Book Whisperer: books, letters, words, snippets of fiction and poetry, and art.