This March, we’re celebrating the many talented and amazing women at ReCreative Denver. From artists and woodworkers to our organization’s board members — we have an impressive line up of female creators, movers and shakers.
As a member of ReCreative’s board, Mara Rose Higgins (she/her) brings innovative vision and brilliant ideas to the table. As a studio artist and designer, she lights up the building with her creativity and passion for the arts community.
Though art was always in the background of how she experienced her world, Mara began painting as an extracurricular activity in her senior year of high school. She always knew she had a talent for this medium, but she soon realized that art was also a way for her to put words to concepts or experience she couldn’t articulate otherwise.
Eventually, her work began to reveal insights she wasn’t initially conscious of. She saw painting as a mirror into her subconscious and a form of therapy and reflection — it became an inner teacher, healer, and coach.
“Some of my paintings have begun in anger or horror with a given experience, topic or reality. Through the course of their execution, the paintings challenge me to see things differently and allow a transformation of perception and power. My desire is never to ‘smooth over’ any injustice or difficult topic, nor to make it more palatable. Rather, I am to access a different reality and vantage point that confronts or intercepts the current indoctrinated one.”
Throughout her career, Mara has had a few mentors stand out, but among them all her father was a significant inspiration in her creative life. Also a psychologist and poet, he and Mara had a similar way of seeing the world and expressing themselves.
He took up painting later in life following a terminal cancer diagnosis. Through his paintings — a tiger in particular — he helped Mara understand the power of symbolism, allegory, and metaphor. He also introduced her to the early works of Ross Bleckner, specifically his pieces that dealt with death and loss.
Mara stays motivated to create through her desire to see her own potential — transformation, healing, and self-actualization.
“Courage is a catalyst to change, and through painting and creating art, I am able to envision it. I hope others can see or experience it too — or at the very least, discover something they didn’t expect or at first comprehend.”