My artistic roots lie in Abstract Expressionism. I began painting in 1990, photographing in 1996 and shooting digital video in 2001. In my early painting I explored ideas of self and relationship to the world/history and to others at a particular time and place, reflecting freedom and restraint, whether self-imposed or societal. This reflection shifted and changed over time to focus on abstract depictions of time, light, space, absence or presence, and the body in motion.

Patterns, structure and order have always fascinated me. I am intrigued by how we structure and order our lives, bodies, and minds; universally, primally and specifically to our time. In my early painting (1990-1995) and photography (Africa), I often portrayed figures enclosed by architectural elements or grids. In discussing the early work (1990-1995), I referred to the ambiguities between appearance/reality, and the struggle between chaos/order.

I use the camera, and now video camera, as I use the brush—as an extension of body, mind and spirit. I often use extended/slowed shutter speeds to portray the passing of time and motion. Recent photographs and Video Stills use nature as source material. While in residency at the Vermont Studio Center 12/03 I developed an experimental technique of Negative Drawing using one negative, light and photographic paper, to "draw" in the darkroom. Except for a brief course on Final Cut Pro at the International Center of Photography, I am a self-taught video artist. To date, I have been shooting and creating motion effects in camera - not manipulating in the editing process. I export still images, make small prints and paint from these images.

The recent work continues my meditation on nature, time, light and space. I hope that the viewer finds a poetic sense of movement, composition and reflection.

Mary Cathryn Roth was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Managerial Studies, French, Art and Art History from Rice University, Houston, Texas, in 1991. She obtained her Master’s in Fine Arts from The City College of the City University of New York in Painting, with a minor in Photography, in 1996. She has supplemented her education in photography with courses at the Atelier Alternative with Aristidis Kyriazis, the Maine Photographic Workshops in Cuba with Constantine Manos, at the International Center of Photography with Andy Darlow, and a workshop with Dan Burkholder.

In November 2000, she was awarded the Medal of St. Jovan Kukuzel for accomplishment in the Arts by the Ministry of Emigration, Republic of Macedonia and participated in a painting residency in the village of Strumica, Macedonia in August 2002. In 2003 she was awarded a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Full Fellowship in Photography to the Vermont Studio Center.

Roth currently lives and works in Edgewater, New Jersey.

Press.