Artist Bio

Glover's work is commissioned by U.S. Members of Congress, and hangs in over 20 public buildings: permanent collections of museums, universities, congressional offices, federal courtrooms, and congressional library. She traveled from Nevada to New York City to Washington D.C. and Rhode Island collaborating with government officials to visually express their views, exhibiting this one person show of civic minded paintings, and facilitating residencies. Glover continues to paint in residencies abroad, and exhibit in NYC, France, Italy, and Norway.

Glover paints from personal observations through years of experience as Courtroom Artist, Congressional Portrait Artist, Arts in Wellness Painter, and Cultural Arts Curator, ranging in activities from helping heal and inspire chronic pain patients to incarcerated youth, to representing many rich cultural traditions, to interviewing and collaborating with Congressional members and civil rights leaders, aesthetically representing their issues.  

Glover’s current work is shaped by these experiences. Her painting vocabulary reflects her growth through helping people through the Arts.  She is a Signature Member of National Association for Women Artists, a national member of Women's Caucus for Art, and served on the Leadership Team of WCA New York Chapter.  Enriching collaborations and mentorships through residencies, curating exhibits, and consulting have inspired Marcene to open ArtHouse6, for artists, curators, and patrons to share cultural experiences.

Earth Patterns, Life Rhythms:
Using nature as a metaphor, I paint about the human condition and social tolerance. Movement is important in my work. I combine oil and acrylic paints and glazes with wax and gold leaf, splashing them onto wood panels. Influenced by Jasper Johns, I let textural brushstrokes and drips show, as evidence of the artist having been there. Fluid washes of paint refer to the idea of wind, movement all around us, and the transient nature of each moment. As I’m also influenced by Mark Rothko’s Color Field painting, I allow calm areas for contemplation to join the active washes.

I don’t paint the olive tree, I paint about the olive tree.  When someone tells you a story about their grandpa, you don’t see their grandpa, you haven’t met him, but you feel like you know him, or you know why you want to meet him. My paintings don’t show you a tree. They describe how the tree is affected by the wind, and how its roots shift the soil… they try to show you why you want to meet the tree.

Some of my paintings embrace a stillness within the greater motion, while others celebrate bold undulating rhythms pulsing through a scene, connecting us to awareness of currents in our lives. Some of these paintings contain symbols to suggest content, while others let the patterns and textures become the glyph.

I’m not bound by traditional perspective methods born from the Renaissance. I relate to Eastern landscape painting that brings the distance forward stacking or flattening it into the same plane with the host. What I bring into the forefront are planes of existence that can’t be seen: movements in air patterns, cross sections of erosion under the earth, goals and aspirations visualized in our dreams. The barrier between these realms of what is above and below the surface is often clearly marked with a gold line. The ways the imagery interacts with the barrier remarks on breaking through barriers in life. So my work points out duality, and suggests we look deeper into our surroundings.

The way I see it, the atmosphere is made up of swirling textures, chunks of light, and resonating shadow. A person's essence cuts through that in a hauntingly clear way, as if carried by the wind, a ripple of water, or these fluid washes of paint....If we listen closely, light rays may reveal societal messages.  Atmospheric glazes reveal elements of content like sunlight reveals details it falls upon. Hieroglyph evokes ancestral reflection. And symbolic keys landmark our thought processes wading through daily stimulus. 

​​​I’ve been painting for 30 years. Originally I was content to paint in a traditional realism style, capturing one’s likeness in figural work. But quickly I grew anxious with that because it wasn’t giving me the tools I needed to convey more about the subject and more of a personal expression. It became important for me to find my own style of combining realism with abstraction…a way to keep enough realism and symbolism to suggest specific information, but adding abstract elements to allow and invite the viewer to bring his ideas and interpretation into the mix. So even though I had learned a lot at Seton Hill University, I set out to do more intensive exploration. I gained more in-depth knowledge of each new medium, and experimented creating different line and textural qualities. I love that I had searched so diligently to learn techniques because now I feel my process is very informed. While I work, I call on elements from each, and flow comfortably through the varied medium I’d immersed myself into. 

So my current work is done in oil, with encaustic, and an acrylic textural under painting, oil top glazes, and gold leaf. Sometimes I incorporate torch fired, glass fused metals. I consider myself a painter, no matter which medium I’m using. Even while manipulating the metals and glass, scribing, heating, pulling, and building up textures, it feels like the same expression as when I’m pouring wax onto my oil paintings, puncturing them and then dripping glaze into the surface. The resulting visceral elements ease the viewer into discovery, toward a healing connection.