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Mary Tasillo is a Philadelphia-based artist who teaches classes and workshops in a variety of media.
She exhibits her work nationally and internationally, and her books and prints are owned by collections both public and private. Mary teaches workshops around the country. She writes about hand papermaking and book arts for publications such as Journal of Artist's Books, Hand Papermaking Newsletter, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She also prints, binds books, and makes paper on a commission basis. Mary works collaboratively as part of the street-based Book Bombs project, and as co-founder of The Soapbox: Community Print Shop & Zine Library. She also works for Hand Papermaking and with numerous community and arts institutions around Philadelphia. |
Artist Statement:
I am compelled to make things.
I continually worry that the world is going to pieces.
To address both of these concerns, I make things about the state of the world. I am impacted by the continual onslaught of stimuli that is the fabric of daily urban and global living. Lists, maps, narrative, and texts both found and written find their way into my work. I am inspired by community. I participate in the book arts, paper arts, print culture, and interactivity as sites of democratic access and narrative possibility. This might mean creating a tactile book that someone spends time poring over, putting prints on paper made from invasive weeds into the street to be seen by all passing by, or inviting others to create handmade paper stenciled with pigmented pulp in public spaces, collecting the visions of the community as their paper art accumulates and sparking conversations amongst participants.
I am compelled to make things.
I continually worry that the world is going to pieces.
To address both of these concerns, I make things about the state of the world. I am impacted by the continual onslaught of stimuli that is the fabric of daily urban and global living. Lists, maps, narrative, and texts both found and written find their way into my work. I am inspired by community. I participate in the book arts, paper arts, print culture, and interactivity as sites of democratic access and narrative possibility. This might mean creating a tactile book that someone spends time poring over, putting prints on paper made from invasive weeds into the street to be seen by all passing by, or inviting others to create handmade paper stenciled with pigmented pulp in public spaces, collecting the visions of the community as their paper art accumulates and sparking conversations amongst participants.