Much of my work is based on my experiences of travel in New Mexico and upbringing in the Texas Panhandle with my family invested in farming and ranching north of Amarillo, TX. These expansive and monumental visuals continue to evoke my research into the complex design-based solutions that arise out of the intersection of man-developed machinery and the natural landscape of an area. As a tactile person, I am captivated by the affect that technologically constructed landscape industry, specifically urban construction and the practice of mining resources becomes its own unique blend of visual aesthetic. I strive to recreate this process of man using tools to manufacture the landscape to their advantage.

Contours: Surface Mining Series
Reconstructing visions of growing up in the New Mexican high desert, I transform my research of surface mining into multiple plate aquatint etchings, and sculptural canvas structures that intertwine the use of natural materials, sewing, and cutting, and chine-collé. In this series of collages, I investigate the processes of natural accumulation and human destruction, where the geologic striations are unearthed through the process of scraping and acid eroding an image into a copper plate. The scientific process of intaglio printmaking mirrors the industrial affects of the landscape, allowing me to reconstruct the way I view the mined landscape. Materials such as copper, uranium, and turquoise are prevalently mined in the Southwest; leaving behind a disjointed aesthetic of deep cut surface mine holes butting against soft plateaus, with linear pathways for machinery to navigate the terrain. Cross-sections of the earth’s strata are placed into view, mirroring the process of mining where the use of tools and labor change the visual landscape.In this series of wall-mounted three-dimensional structures, I cut, scrape, sew, paste paper, and apply collected samples of New Mexican dirt to sculptural canvas structures. Overlapping forms of cut or torn paper, hand-dyed fabrics, and burlap are stitched and woven in between brushed on layers of sand, and into earth-toned fabrics to reveal the displaced layers of soil due to mining. I create a natural desert, and then destruct it with tools I make, and intertwine my materials, imitating the development of industrial growth.

Biography
Molly Zimmer pulls on her upbringing in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico to influence her passion for teaching, painting, and curating. Much of her studio work revolves around the Southwest landscape, investigating the affects that the technologically constructed landscape, specifically urban construction and the practice of mining as these visual transformations become its own blend of aesthetic. I strive to recreate this process of man using tools to manufacture the landscape to their advantage using oil paint, printmaking techniques such as intaglio and collograph, and hand-dyed fabrics.

She will be teaching an introductory Drawing I class this Fall, as she pursues her Master of Fine Arts in Painting & Printmaking from University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to be completed in May 2018. In 2014, Molly received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Painting and Museum Curating. She has previously worked at the New Grounds Print Workshop and Matrix Fine Art Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico; participated in the Summer Intensive program to Sorrento, Italy for plein-air painting through MICA; and most recently worked at Fleckenstein Gallery & Archival Framing in Baltimore, Maryland assembling and custom designing framing for private collectors and institutions. Molly will be participating in the group exhibition of her most recent work at Cerulean Gallery in Amarillo, TX in September through October, with several artists- including her grandmother Marilyn Yanke. Molly will also be showing her work with the incoming 2015 MFA Studio Art class in the Exhibition, “At First Sight” coordinated by the University of New Mexico to be shown in downtown Albuquerque.

Education
2015 University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, New Mexico (NM)
M.F.A. Painting & Printmaking

2014 Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, Maryland (MD)
B.F.A. painting, concentration curatorial studies

Studio Art: Hand/machine sewing, oil/acrylic painting, watercolor, figure drawing, monotype, etching,
collograph, screen printing, intaglio, black/white photography, graphic design