Mab Graves Debuts With Snow White In The Black Forest

1xRUN Thru Interview
Snow White in the Black Forest by Mab Graves

1xRUN: Tell us a bit about this piece.
Mab Graves: This piece was created for “Glass, Cinder and Thorns III” for Inner State gallery and 1xRun opening this month. Glass, Cinder & Thorns in its third year running is an all-female [artist] show exploring fairy tales, their darker side and what they mean to each one of us.

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1xRUN: Where did you draw inspiration from while creating this piece?
Mab Graves: I started working on this piece in January and the themes of a dark fairytale show were really perfect for me at the time. I was going through a lot in my life and it was in a very dark place emotionally, so getting to pour all of that into this piece was really perfect.

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In the early stages, Snow was actually running through a meadow into the dark forest, but as things progressed and my world got sadder, the forest began to grow up around her, engulfing her. It was very therapeutic in a way, because even as the angry trees and ghouls in this piece were threatening Snow, she still had her little band of forest creatures and familiars with her. Even though they can’t necessarily protect her, they aren’t abandoning her and running away. They are with her till the end. I guess there were a lot of subconscious parallels.
This piece was a distraction and an escape for me. It was one dark, chaotic little piece of sanity in a rather shattering time for me personally.

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1xRUN: Being as Glass, Cinder & Thorns is fairytale themed show, what made you choose Snow White?
Mab Graves: Snow White has always been my favorite fairytale. I loved the color palette – so much darker and more shaded than a lot of fairytales – and I loved the old German feel. My mother’s side is German so there was always something in it I identified with. It was always the one I wanted to read and my ancient copy of Grimm’s always opened to it. When I was little, my best friend and I would throw a blanket over the TV and act out the old Disney movie in mime while it played.

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1xRUN: Tell us how the execution for the original piece came about.
Mab Graves: This piece was created in two parts: the first part of the piece was painted in oils, then it was scanned, digitized, enlarged, and printed on canvas. Then I took the canvas and painted a second layer over it – with iridescent ghouls and ghosts, new flowers etc. The entire finished piece is really hard to photograph because of the ghost layers – and that was intentional – I wanted it to be something that could really only be experienced in person – by gallery goers and the final owner of the piece. I wanted it to be a special and personal experience – just like fairy tales are to each one of us.

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1xRun: Where else can people find you?
Mab Graves: WebsiteInstagram@mabgraves – FacebookTwitter@mabgraves – PinterestEtsy

-1xRUN