Martha Jo Mahoney
Martha grew up in Orlando, Florida, with a large family of seven brothers and sisters and uses her memories from those early times to inform her work. She majored in Art at the University of Florida, then lived in the Northeast for 12 years with her husband Fred, doing outdoor art shows and winning many Best of Shows early in her career. She has traveled the world with Fred and created many works from her travels to places like Easter Island, South America, Mexico, Europe, Asia, The Florida Keys, Central America, and Nepal. For the past 20 years, she continues to travel and work in her studio in Orlando creating and showing her work.
Artist’s Statement
I am a non-objective painter using my internal reference from my memories. This form of expression has always provided me with an unparalleled means of conveying emotion and mood. My work is evocative and poetic rather than the descriptive. Painted arrangements are metaphors for things in nature, both physical and spiritual. Elements and relationships come into being, evolve and phase out or transform being very fluid and fleeting - just as things do in life. For example, my “Traveler Series” paintings are from my feelings about the present times in our life with the social upheaval of what is current now. This again is from my memories of the statues in my church, looking down on us, guiding the way. My Landscapes are from my memories as a child on a lake. My abstracts are from colors from the various places I’ve traveled to and some of my abstract writing is from my shorthand skills I learned in high school.
Influences
I am strongly influenced by the non-objective painters of the 40’s thru the 60’s. I love the idea of feeling the freedom of automatic drawing, gestural linear movements that come from my “interior”. Joan Mitchell, Franze Kline, Richard Diebenkorn, to just name a few.
Awards
Harris House Gallery, New Smyrna Beach, FL
Naples Museum of Art, Florida Contemporary Show, Naples, FL
Art in Chambers Orange County Government Building, Orlando, FL
2009 International “Abstract” Art Show, Guests Gallery, GA
“Big-Uns” Exhibition, Hollingsworth Gallery, Palm Coast, FL
Deloney Newkirk Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Michael Murphy Gallery, Tampa, FL
Lincoln Properties Dynatech Building, Orlando, Fl
Avalon Gallery, Orlando, FL
City Arts Factory, Orlando, FL
Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL
Mayor Crotty’s “Womans Leadership Summit”, Orlando, FL
Meridian Gallery, Thomasville, GA
United Arts of Central Florida, Maitland Arts Center, Maitland, FL
Orange County Administration Building, Orlando, FL
Women in the Arts, Inc., Winter Park, FL
Orlando Marriott, Orlando, FL
Rollins College, Winter Park, FL (catalog available)
Deland Museum of Art Florida Biennial, Deland, FL
Media
Expressive Drawing, Steven Aimone, Lark Books, 2009
Growing Bolder Magazine, 2013
Bolder Media Group Video 2012
Exhibitions
Art in Bloom - A Festival of Fine Art and Flowers, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL 2022
Naples Museum of Art, Florida Contemporary Show, Naples, FL
Deloney Newkirk Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Lincoln Properties Dynatech Building, Orlando, FL
Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL
United Arts of Central Florida, Maitland Arts Center, Maitland, FL
Women in the Arts, Inc., Winter Park, FL
Rollins College, Winter Park, FL
Deland Museum of Art Florida Biennial, Deland, FL
Phil Kean Design Group, New American Home, 2017
Artwork chosen for mural design for Dynatech building in downtown Orlando along with 6-story panels of artwork
Solo Shows
Hunt Home Couture, Huntsville, AL
Maitland Art Center, Maitland, FL (catalog available)
New York Public Library, Jefferson Market, NYC
Collections
Lincoln Properties
Hilton Inn Properties
Phil Kean Design Group, Winter Park, FL