MARY COURTNEY
ART - POETRY
drawing n digital with a poetic twist
Drawing and digital art - with a poetic twist
Mary Courtney
Coventry UK award-winning artist and poet, inspired by the city, stories, science, the ambiguous and deliciously ridiculous. Moves fluidly between drawing, animation, word-play, collaborative filmmaking and installation. Creates with artists and people of all ages and walks of life. Co-founded Sitting Rooms of Culture, a Facebook group supporting and showcasing creativity in Coventry (over 6k members). Has made a drawing the size of two and a half blue whales, a poetry bridge and a talking tin of tomatoes.
Collaborative
animation
drawing
Community
word-play
fabulation film
enjoy
Coventry
projection
mapping
social action
curation
The Bling-Road
By Mary Courtney and Karen Johnson. The iconic Coventry ring-road made with 3000 pieces of donated bling. Photo credit: Karen Johnson. 13K views on BBC Midlands.
Stained Glass
An exhibition of projected close-up photographs of the Coventry Cathedral Nave windows.
Drawing with a pen
I like to draw direct to the page with a pen. This is a drawing of a machine made without looking at the paper. Then converting it into a couple welcoming you to their party.
Cullen Jig animation
An adaptation of part of the Cullen Mural in Coventry Precinct, with an original soundscore by Synthcurious. Shown on the Warwick University Big Screen
Characters of the Elements
A 70 metre drawing-poem revealing the 118 ingredients of the universe - from Hydrogen Hooligan to Chlorine the Killer Clean, and beyond, to the final one - Oganesson Orgasmatron. Each brought out of their box on the Periodic Table into a very different new life.
Anagram Animation
A being OBJECTIVE - Collaborative Animation
Stars Anna Lytic, a moon-brain, a tightrope walker, and bees with attitude, in a film made with students, scientists, and animator Laurence Campbell, questioning how objective we can really be. Concept, character design and direction by Mary Courtney.
Egg - Haiku
Tomorrow
Tomorrow the robots have grey hair
And sit in circles in nursing home armchairs
Because some things don’t change
The slipper shuffle with the Zimmer frame
The corralling and disdain for old age
Minimum care for the minimum wage
Art from Science - Curation
Scores of microscopic images, curated and exhibited as Art of the Micronosphere, on giant digital screens at the University of Warwick. A collaboration with the Chemistry Department during the Leverhulme Artist Residency at Warwick. Chemists pictured here with their images.
Anatomy of Thinking - Drawing
Creating art events in community settings
bringing people together
for the fun of it
Pop Din - Collaborative Animation with Alan Van Wijgerden
Featuring a brain waving and a battle with the lolipops.
Plastic Planet - Poem
Grand Tour of the Cov Telegraph - Collaborative Animation
The old Coventry Telegraph building, filmed in the last week of its life as a Pop Up Gallery. A grand tour, led by a skull tour guide. With Alan Van Wijgerden. Sound by Synthcurious.
The Coventry Elephantastic - Community Big Draw
Made by 200+ people in four hours. Segment below.
Sponnie
The Mechanical Fish
From Spon End
Sponnie, with his subway scales, waving hand and chomping jaw, brought together local people and their magical fish creations, at the Spon Spun Arts Festival 2018.
A collaboration with Fab Lab (Marie Sindel and Jack Shuttleworth), Coventry Grapevine, Christopher Sidwell and Andrea Mburushimana. Concept and lead artist Mary Courtney.
Sponnie the mechanical fish
wins Visitors' Choice Award
Night off the Tiles - Animation with Alan Van Wijgerden
inspired by the animals and images on the Cullen mural in Coventry Precinct
Phoenix. Film-Poem collaboration with Tara Rutledge
The Phoenix is the symbol of Coventry. This film featured on the Coventry Cathedral Facebook page as their cover video, for over a year. (15k views). Screened at the Cathedral in 2020