Mary Royall Wilgis
Mary Royall is a contemporary artist, light chaser, and color enthusiast based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work invites her audience to stop and notice the light: how it shapes space, measures time, and defines color.
Collect Bean: What role does art play in society, and how does your work contribute to that?
Mary Royall Wilgis: Every morning, I start my day by reading poetry. Currently, it’s “Devotions,” a collection of Mary Oliver poems that was a gift from my best friend. When I read a poem, I feel it in my whole body – my jaw releases, my shoulders relax, I breathe out, and sometimes I laugh or cry. I release emotions that I didn’t even know were there. What this ritual does to my body is what I believe art does to the world: it makes space to feel. In a world that’s always rushing, I hope my work carves out a space to feel wonder and peace.
Collect Bean: If you had to describe your work in only three words, what would they be?
Mary Royall Wilgis: Light, wonder, warmth
Collect Bean: Are there any recurring themes or motifs in your art, and if so, what do they represent to you?
Mary Royall Wilgis: I started my creative practice by noticing light. At the time, it was a way to calm my anxiety and ground my body during a period of medical turmoil. I was in the middle of treatment for an autoimmune disease and felt like the world was falling apart, but this act of noticing helped keep me sane. I could notice light anywhere: the way the cool doctor's office light brought out the orange in a skin tone, the way the sunlight made sunbursts on my eyelids, the way light moved across the wall when I couldn't move from bed. Once I started, I couldn’t stop noticing light everywhere: how it measures time, shapes space, and defines color.
Collect Bean: How do you balance your practice with your daily life?
Mary Royall Wilgis: I feel very little separation between life and art. I recently became pen pals with an artist in my hometown, and he wrote me a beautiful letter about how he loves artists who are like caricatures of their work. I want to embody this statement.
I’m paint with and wear a ridiculous amount of chartreuse. When I commute to my studio in Brooklyn, I pass through a sea of New Yorkers rocking black, ultra-stylish fits, while I’m in an all-yellow outfit or my full-length chartreuse wool coat.
I feel my clothes, my relationships, and my home to all be expressions of how I see the world. It can feel frustrating when I can’t separate my work from my life, but it is beautiful when I smile at someone on the street, and they light up in childlike wonder at the splash of yellow.
I want people to feel the same way when they see me at the grocery store, come over for dinner, or see my art: warm, welcomed, and seen.
Collect Bean: Are there any artists or movements that have inspired or influenced your work?
Mary Royall Wilgis: The Space and Light movement that came out of California in the 1960s. Georgia O’Keefe, specifically her MOMA Retrospective, “To See Takes Time.” Mary Oliver’s poetry. Anything by James Turrell. Lois Dodd’s intimate light paintings. Luis Barragán’s architecture. Ellsworth Kelly. Chairs, teapots, and art books. And, of course, the amazing work coming from the queer and women artists in Brooklyn right now.
