Marion Wesson “Oblik 1″

”I am a fifth generation Californian born in 1971 and raised in Los Angeles. I graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1993 and have been a working artist ever since. I have exhibited in galleries, non profit spaces and museums, am in collections all over the country and I won the coveted James D. Phelan Art Award in Printmaking. I live in Los Angeles with my husband and two daughters.

Growing up a second generation Los Angelino and a fifth generation Californian, I was made aware of my family’s cultural history and impact on the state as well as the United States as a whole from an early age. I am a descendant of Kit Carson (1809-1868), a famous early Californian pioneer on my mother’s side, and Daniel B. Wesson, of Smith and Wesson guns (founded in 1852), on my father’s side. I am also a direct descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, one of the two founders of Memphis (1774) and John Quincy Adams. Hopeful of how I can make new history as a female artist in Los Angeles, I think my art can continue the tradition of contributing to the cultural landscape by creating new historical viewpoints through my paintings. I hope to contribute to a new culture, a new thinking and help people look at Los Angeles not as a vapid wasteland but as the beautiful and diverse place I grew up descendant from a long line of men and women who wanted to make a difference as well.”
-Marion Wesson