MARY JO MULLINS
Mary Jo lives near Pelee Island, a beautiful island paradise in the most southerly region of Canada known for its secluded beaches and provincial nature reserves and immerses herself in The Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. She is deeply and intimately connected to her environment.
Her formal education and training is embedded in the forms of contemporary dance and early creative works emphasized the modern dance technique of Martha Graham. Experimentation in later years with performance improvisation, creating site-specific dance, performing in dance films and interdisciplinary work and creating a dance installation for the first mobile network in Canada gave way to an entirely new form of artistic expression and practice.
Mary Jo now creates expressions of dance, photography, visual art and/or film, to integrate her life and art, make meaningful connections between herself and her environment and share the beauty of the world that surrounds her.
WINTER BLUES
JOURNEYS BLOG
GREEN EARTH
PEACE IN THE VALLEY
My artistic practice has a lot of moving parts. The core premise of my work is movement, which comes from a lifelong career in dance. After years of formal education and training in that form, followed by a very rewarding and successful period of performing, choreographing and presenting dance, my soul began to yearn for something more. Perhaps something more challenging and complex, more integrated, layered, more personal and meaningful for me.
This realization was very profound for me.
It moved me out of a dance studio and into nature.
MY CONNECTION TO NATURE
The landscape of my life has always made significant imprints on my being, like tatoos on my psyche memories from the heart. I am a western girl, born in Calgary, Alberta where travelling under land bridges for animals on route to Banff and enjoying a picnic on Lake Minnewanka was family time. Growing up in the Niagara Region meant frequent excursions to Niagara Falls and the Niagara Escarpment to entertain family and friends and to attend reunions at Queenston Heights where the family ties ran very deep. The summers of my youth were immersed in the Kawartha Lakes in Ontario. For these blessings of early life, I am eternally grateful.
So, I have always had a deep connection with the natural world and the elements, especially water. And, journeying of all kinds has become an integral part of my art making process. It is as essential as movement and the natural world. My artistic practice is indeed my way of living and being in this world. It is my integrated way of sharing, expressing and communicating all of the beauty and wonder I experience in the places and spaces I call home.
I create expressions of dance, photography, film and/or visual art seeking to integrate my life and art, make meaningful connections between my self and my environment and to share the beauty of the world that surrounds me. I hope my work inspires you to connect with nature and take adventurous, creative journeys of your own.
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