Original Art Piece

Olympus is meant to be a divine paradise – a place to explore, love, and be carefree. Not act as a home for squabbling siblings.

It was natural to see Athena and Hermes depicted and unified to create a new form known as Hermathena. In ancient times, these gods shared or 'doubled' each other's functions when paired, with some of their powers alternated, related, or even enhanced. In modern times, they lean into the experience of standard sibling quarrels. The only difference is that their disagreements lead to a bit more of a story to tell at family get-togethers.

This pair is entirely hand-cut, and made with love and care.

Mash was born and raised in Toronto and began her artistic collage journey following her post-secondary graduation. She has always been captivated by the ability to create a world within a canvas. She draws her inspiration from artists such as Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner and Hannah Höch. She combines her inspiration with her own lived experiences and explores themes around death and life, the masculine and feminine, and the movement of the human body. Her preferred medium of choice is collage, particularly when she’s able to combine her photography and ink work together.

Her work has been featured in numerous art shows as well as online publications around the world. She completed a Mudhouse Art Residency program in Crete in 2019, and recently completed the Iris Artist Program and SkopArt Residency in Greece, 2022.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Mash’s work is inspired by the beauty of life and death. She sees the emotional journeys of the human experience from a lens of beauty and opportunity, and attempts to challenge her audiences to step back and identify our emotions at the extreme (for example, joy with birth and grief with death) as opportunities full of wonder, expansion, and growth. Losing her mother at a young age was a formative experience in her life, which has allowed her to cherish and perceive life in a way that was unlike that of her peers. As a child living in an immigrant family, she works to honour her Greek roots, her ancestors, and her loved ones, for all that they sacrificed in order for her journey to flourish through her art. The rich culture and history of her lineage can be seen in various pieces throughout her artistic expressions.

Over the years, her work often creates alternate worlds that feel new, yet familiar – making it difficult to differentiate between her artistic dreams and true reality. She deeply enjoys hearing people’s interpretations of her art, and the emotions and reflections that they evoke and invoke. She hopes that her work sparks a moment of joy, sadness, clarity, compassion, and wisdom in her audience.