“In Solitude with Bright Colors”: A DC Artist’s Journey to Self-Expression and Community
Painter Marily Mojica provides the cover for the new edition of a local literary collection by women
Content warning: One painting included in this piece depicts self-harm.
When local D.C. artist Marily Mojica sold her painting A Room of Her Own in 2015, she had no idea it would end up as the cover art for “Furious Gravity,” the ninth edition of the D.C. women writers literary anthology Grace and Gravity.
But if the match wasn’t intended, it’s nonetheless fitting.
Mojica’s paintings and crafts focus on women. And the collection, due out May 1, contains 50 stories and essays written by women about the forces that “bind them together and pull them apart.”
“I’m a heterosexual woman who loves women,” Mojica said in a phone interview. “I love the clothing, the style, the diversity, and I like to paint it.” Her earliest artistic pursuits were decidedly female creations too, though they were ragdolls and not oil or acrylic paintings.
The doll that put her on the map was inspired by Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter, and one of Mojica’s earlier inspirations. Her next rag doll updated the character of Raggedy Anne, whom she portrayed as a black teenager named “Jazzy Amber.” Mojica continued her career at Montgomery College, taking a class in drawing and eventually starting her first painting, titled Self-Inflicted.
Her journey to painting had not been easy or direct. “I always wanted to paint but never felt like I could. I don’t come from the kind of family that would encourage that.” And feedback on that first painting was not positive — “Everyone was like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s horrible.’” — but Mojica persevered.
“When I paint, I paint stories,” Mojica said, “and the story behind that [painting] is that it’s not what other people do to us, it’s what we do to ourselves.”
Today, she still paints female figures in dour situations (see Happy Mother’s Day) but gradually, her colors brightened and her singular figures became groups of women. These seemed more popular — she sold the first painting she created that featured two women interacting. Mojica credits this success and her switch toward more upbeat paintings to her first exhibition in 2015, when a friend and local collector sponsored her in Artomatic, a visual art show in Washington D.C.
Beyond producing art, Mojica also curates it. She worked with D.C. restaurant chain Busboys and Poets to display only female artists in their restaurants for all of 2017. She also curated a show entitled OurVoices: Perspectives of Women at the Ice House in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. “The show was about me wanting to see a lot of women connected,” Mojica said. Though they came from different classes and races, every artist in the exhibition had a similar message: “their own voice yet still a group voice,” as Mojica puts it.
It is this promotion of women’s voices, both as a group and as unique individuals, that makes Mojica’s inclusion on the cover of Furious Gravity so appropriate. The editor of the volume, Melissa Scholes Young, an associate professor in the Department of Literature at American University, purchased A Room of Her Own in 2015 after admiring Mojica’s work at a small gallery show, paying for it with the money from the sale of her first essay to The Atlantic.
Young saw the purchase as an organic way to invest in her local art community, as well as to obtain a piece art of that spoke to her: “I was drawn immediately to the serene, satisfied nature of the woman on her couch,” Young said in a text message. “She was in solitude with bright colors and beautiful objects filling her room. It was a natural fit to bring a painting that spoke to me back to my writing desk.”
Now, in her second edition as editor, having taken over for local literary stalwart Richard Peabody, Young brings Mojica into the fold with the wish that each and every writer in the anthology gets their own lemon-yellow couch of solitude to find their voice on.
“It’s important to me that a local D.C. artist be featured on the cover of an anthology of DC women writers,” Young wrote. “Many women writers struggle to balance home, work, family, and life, and you just have to begin and see the juggle as fuel for creativity rather than a barrier. Marily and her work are a natural fit and it’s been an honor to have her support.”
Mojica embodies this advice as she’s used the isolation induced by the Coronavirus pandemic to embark on other projects, the most notable of which is also the furthest removed from her traditional mediums of crafting and painting. “We live in a youth-oriented society and the assumption is that, after 50, women's’ lives are almost over.” Mojica said. “And that’s not true. We’re still vibrant, youthful, and productive. By 50, we’re our best selves. Our personal experiences make us wiser and we’ll be able to contribute to a more peaceful and balanced society.”
To counteract this stereotype, she’s been interviewing women in the arts from the ages of 50–100, including Paula Whaley, a figurative sculptor and author James Baldwin’s youngest sister.
Another interviewee is a 101-year-old Edith Stephen, who was a resident in the first Westbeth building in New York City. Westbeth artists communities are groups of artists who live and work together, paying however much they can in rent depending on their financial situation. Mojica interviewed Stephens in-person, discovering that she dances to this day — making hand movements when she hears music.
Though Mojica doesn’t know exactly what her artist interviews will turn into, she didn’t even have the time to explore her idea until recently: “The [pandemic] has helped me in terms of having more time to create.”
Black women’s role as recorders of memory and influential players in history is also the theme of an upcoming DC show curated by interdisciplinary artist Tsedaye Makonnen. Put on by Washington Project for the arts, Black Women as/and the Living Archive was inspired by Alisha Wormsley’s film Children of NAN: Mothership, a dystopian film that highlights the power of Black women in a dystopian future.
The show is set to run for six weeks, delivering content around four themes: Space, Moving Image, Memory; Collective Memory; Pleasure Memory; and Mama Memory [& Care]. Events include cast members of the film giving two performances, a full screening, and a discussion.
Art shows and openings may have been canceled across the city because of the Coronavirus pandemic, but the art community has not shutdown; they’ve simply moved online, sharing photos of their work and inspiring one another to create. “Just from seeing other people’s work [on Facebook], I’ve started two paintings,” Mojica said.
The local art community has given her a family in D.C. that she couldn’t find before, a family that’s only focused on what you’re creating: “D.C. is very clique-ish in different ways, but artists don’t care what you make or where you live. It’s about what you’re working on right now.”
Mojica expects her art family to grow after the quarantine is lifted as well, which can serve as a ray of hope for culture- and activity-starved residents: “Artists have always built communities, and the contact of going to an art event is being missed. I think it’s going to explode after this.”
