Denise Cormier Mahoney

Eugene Delacroix once said something true to my way of work.
“What inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.”

Denise Cormier Mahoney is a bi-coastal mixed-media artist based in New Brunswick, Canada and Florida. Her artwork is filled with the textures and details of her childhood curiosities, discovered in her hometown of Memramcook, a farming village in Eastern Canada. Cormier’s deepening relationship with her hometown is a large influence on her work and daily life.
Dedicated to the exploration of beauty and balance, her work is symbolic and poignant. Each piece of art bears a memory or a question she can’t get out of her mind. Lyrical and full of color, her pieces inspire reflection and curiosity.

A recent project focused on recapturing memories and influences from Mahoney’s childhood in a series of drawings, linocut prints and paintings that are the foundation of her Acadian heritage, exploring stories shared by villagers her age, reconnecting Mahoney to her Acadian community after a 35 year absence.

Denise received a BA of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax and a MA of Art Education from Texas Tech University. She is an active member of the Women Painters of Washington in Seattle and the Federation of Canadian Artists in Granville Island, Vancouver.

As a narrative artist, I explore the significance of story and how it relates to others as a way of embracing shared experiences and human interactions. I am a modern mixed media folk art painter and printmaker exploring memories, walks in the forest and human nature, all things that stir my imagination to create content. Since childhood, trees have been a very important element for grounding. From climbing and hiding in them as a child to embracing their beauty, strength and spiritual nature, the tree features prominently in my art as allegory and identity.

Influenced by my catholic upbringing including Gothic Revival architecture, I am naturally fascinated by Medieval Illuminations, Art Nouveau and Post Impressionism whose inspirations are seen in much of my work. Using diverse materials like gold leaf, fabric and paper collages, I fuse patterns and textures that focus on themes that unite rather than divide. My desire is to connect with others through shared stories and restore harmony and beauty into a world that is becoming increasingly polarized and cynical.

Denise Cormier Mahoney