CAZENOVIA — This June is particularly busy for Cazenovia fine artist and writer Marianne Smith Dalton, whose work recently caught the attention of a Philadelphia gallery and an online literary magazine.
“Writing and creating art can be lonely work, and recognition along the way is truly a catharsis in my creative journey,” said Dalton.
Recently, her photograph “October Still Life” was selected for exhibition in The Galleries at Moore at Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art & Design.
The image is from the series “Chasing Paradise,” which draws upon Dalton’s work as a painter and features stylized photographs of flowers and plants found in her rural surroundings.
“A photograph captures a moment in time and my goal is to transcend that notion into a photograph that provokes a moment reminisced, much like a painting,” Dalton said in her artist statement. “I endeavor to intertwine both interpretation and emotion into each photograph through light, shadow, and color, as each carefully edited image echoes an altered reality of both truth and illusion. I hint at the physicality of a painter’s brushstroke through a heightened visual awareness by both focusing and blurring the image I see through my lens. As I continue to stalk nature, the camera reveals the world beyond what my naked eye can see. It is this extraordinary symbiotic relationship between me and my camera that inspires and motivates my creative vision in this ongoing series.”
The Galleries at Moore will hold an opening reception on Friday, June 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. A closing reception is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 23, at 5:30 p.m.
Dalton’s nonfiction story “A Rainbow Day” has been selected for publication on The Write Launch beginning June 15. It will be Dalton’s sixth publication.
The Write Launch is an online literary magazine that publishes creative works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from selected writers.
Dalton’s featured story recounts one July afternoon in her life, beginning with her experiencing a puzzling urge to visit her childhood home.
“[She was] hesitant to go back because she believed it would only rekindle sad memories,” the story’s synopsis states. “Instead, going home brought to the forefront the realization that nature’s unpredictable intervention can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. A spectacular experience of self-discovery and healing enhanced by summer’s seasonal magic highlights the writer in between memories and reality, including being enveloped by what she calls a kind of transcendental soaking rainfall, coupled with an inexplicable olfactory hallucination rooted in a favorite childhood dessert. All surrounding the delicious surprise of a real double rainbow.”
The Write Launch has also selected three of Dalton’s photographs from the series “Metamorphosis” for publication.
The images are titled “Splash,” “Sienna Sky,” and “Midnight Blue.”
According to Dalton, each painterly creation is constructed from dozens of layered photographs and is inspired by her reaction to nature’s extreme seasonal change.
“I draw upon my work as a fine artist in painting and my lifelong preoccupation with collecting and displaying natural found ephemera,” she said in her artist statement. “My goal is for each photograph to become much like a shadow box of treasured jewels as I attempt to hold on yet remain captive inside nature’s fleeting evanescent labyrinth.”
Dalton was a founding member, curator, and gallery director of the Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse.
Established in the early 2000s, Redhouse is a nonprofit, multicultural organization dedicated to the production and presentation of multidisciplinary works in theatre, music, and visual art.
During the center’s first several years, Dalton was responsible for dozens of exhibitions showcasing local and nationally recognized artists working in everything from installation, painting, and photography to sculpture and mixed media.
She left Redhouse in 2012 to focus solely on her own creative work.
Dalton has been sharing her paintings and photography through gallery exhibitions for several decades. Hoping to reach a broader audience, she recently began sharing her photography with literary journals and magazines for publication.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she began writing about her life experiences and submitting her work to editors.
“I have been selective about where I submit my work and incredibly excited that the editors from Stone Canoe, The Brooklyn Review, Shots Magazine, and The Write Launch have selected my work for their publications,” Dalton said. “I have been grateful for their support of both my writing and photography. Receiving affirmation of my work this June is both a surprise and a thrill to me, both professionally and personally. I literally jumped for joy when I got this news. And as I sit here in the place I love and call my little oasis, Cazenovia, I feel truly blessed. I like to think that [Caz] has much to do with every aspect of my creative life, as [it] continually provides me a cornucopia of visual and first-hand experiences [that] I draw upon daily. Right now, [the] birds are whistling all around me as I sit in the cool shade next to the lake. The reflection of the water magically shimmers as the clouds overhead look like unfurled satin blowing in the wind. Billowy and abstract like oil paint dabbled across a creamy velvet sky. They dance above me.”
To learn more about Dalton’s photography, painting, and writing, visit mdaltonart.com.
