Maggie Shafran

Maggie Shafran Biography

Maggie Shafran is a multidisciplinary artist interested in themes of humanity, memory, fragility, the impermanence of life, and the transformational quality of death. Driven by a desire to preserve and examine flora, objects, and relationships, she brings curiosity and a critical eye to encounters in her daily life. Collecting, recording, and close examination are key elements in her process. She works with a range of methods and materials, including oil painting, plaster casting, drawing, photography, sewing, digital manipulation, and collage. Translating between mediums, Maggie inserts her hand as an artist into the life of an image, allowing her to develop a deeper awareness and connection with her subject. The physical and meditative act of making is central to her practice and vital to the final expression of the work. 

Originally from the US, Maggie earned her undergraduate BA in Fine Art at Pitzer College in 2014 and began working as an artist in Los Angeles and Sun Valley, Idaho. She moved to England in 2020 to pursue further education, earning a distinction in her Graduate Diploma from the Royal College of Art and for her MA in painting from UAL Camberwell. She is currently based in South London. 

Maggie Shafran Description

Maggie Shafran Statement

Inspired by Dutch floral still life, this series is a meditation on paintings by Jan Van Huysum. His work has a bountiful energy, but littered throughout are classic symbols of the fleetingness of life. The flowers and fruit are in a state of decay from the moment they are cut or picked. Elements of the grotesque reside within the beautiful; the terracotta vases are coffins, and his bouquets are an exhumation and a resurrection. 

Working from high-resolution images I find online, I visually scour these paintings, exploring the worlds that exist within. Cropping new compositions that highlight the details and symbols of death, I use drawing as a form of active viewing, translating what I see and using myself as the filter through which the image is processed and re-presented. Working with graphite and charcoal drains the flattering appeal of luscious colors, directing focus to the indicators of decay and to the putti, who can get lost amongst the lavish brightness of the original. 

I make each drawing on separate panels of watercolor paper that I then sew together with cotton thread. I chose the threads' color directly from the original artwork to strengthen the connection between his paintings and my drawings, while adding an element of vibrancy and movement. I bring these separate pieces together in an act that recalls Frankenstein stitching flesh from separate bodies to make his monster and parallels Van Huysum's painting of flowers in the same vase, despite the impossibility of their coexistence in reality. His paintings, and my drawings of them, are an amalgamation of disparate moments, brought together into a single picture of time passing. This frozen image may never reach the pinnacle that is death, but death is always looming. 

The titles for this body of works are quotes from Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series, a sixteen-book series I listened to while creating these works. Hearing stories while I work allows me to lose myself in the meditative act of drawing and fixes the lessons and words of wisdom in my mind and into the paper, along with the image. The messages enhance my thinking on the themes in my work and help me understand my impulses and motivation for creating art.

Present for me throughout the creation of Fragments were words about living in the now and of the agony caused when one tries to settle events long past by constantly rehashing them in the present. I see my own compulsions reflected in the characters' actions, linked by our desire to preserve and keep close something that cannot be tied down: an unwillingness to surrender to time or fate. Attempts to transcribe the past are always infested with the present and say more about our own perspective than those moments long gone. Whenever I look at these drawings, I am transported into Hobb’s world, her words echoing in my mind. I wished to allow the viewer a chance to share in my experience, and so have titled each work with small pieces of those tales.