Maureen Rooney is a visual artist living and working in Phoenix, Arizona. She has been participating in studio courses at the Maricopa Community College District for the past several years. Rooney discovered painting and drawing in her 60s after decades of work with photography. These two-dimensional mediums allow for pictorial composition, an interest foregrounding Rooney’s work as forged through the lens of photography.

Rooney’s interest in movement — such as dance and music — informs the fluidity of her painting and drawing process.

Fascinated by the body language of human beings and animals alike, Rooney finds special interest in the figurative genre, seeking to express an intimacy with her subjects and to convey a similar empathy to viewers. Rooney’s interest in movement — such as dance and music — informs the fluidity of her painting and drawing process.

Rooney’s work often employs diverse surface materials, including repurposed objects and scrap materials such as cabinet doors and slate shingles. The range of painting surfaces contributes to a flexibility of style contingent upon their intrinsic qualities and formal constraints.

20 Minute Eternity, acrylic on cardboard, 11”x12”, 2019

How did you begin painting?

After a few semesters of Life Drawing, my instructor encouraged me to try my hand at painting. (It seemed to me that my mother-bird was pushing fledging-bird me out of the nest to stretch my wings!) I’m glad she did.

How do you decide what you will paint?

Often, the surface I have available to work with suggests what the painting should be. Other times, I hear something on the news or see something out in my daily life that grabs me emotionally and evokes a painting.

The Raven, acrylic on plywood, 12”x16”, 2018

What are your influences?

A lifetime of art appreciation. Instructors and fellow art students.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your creative process?

The making itself is the reward, hands down. But it is also quite rewarding to share a finished work — with instructors, fellow students, friends, the general public — and hearing their view, whether critical or appreciative. That’s the whole point of art, I think: the conversation and interaction it provokes.

Youth Orchestra, acrylic on paper, 14”x22”, 2018

Tell us about your experience at PVCC.

I sing PVCC’s praises. Seriously. Great instructors. Great studio space for making art. Great library collection. Adria Pecora was definitely a mentor to me. She made me aware of submission opportunities, scholarship opportunities, and even art-related job opportunities. The Portfolio class has proved invaluable. She exposed me to artists that were new to me, widening my horizons. She was just so much more than a painting instructor (although she was excellent at that as well).

The studio at PV is a beautiful space for making art. The instructors and my fellow students were a supportive community—sharing techniques, materials and tools, ideas. I’ve made connections with talented people as a result of my classes that have broadened my personal community.

What do you hope viewers think or feel when they interact with your work?

I hope that viewers can sense the emotion and personal expression of the subjects in my paintings. I hope that I am capturing the “life” of my subjects even as I turn them into a “still life” in the moment.

About the Artist

Rooney holds a degree in Urban Geography from Arizona State University. She has exhibited her artwork in MCCD’s 2017 “Artist of Promise” exhibit held at the Herberger Theater in Phoenix; in the 2017 and 2018 juried Student Art Shows at the Eric Fischl Gallery, Phoenix College; at the Arizona State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition in 2018 and 2019; and at Art Intersection’s 2019 “All Art Arizona” and “Little by Little” exhibitions in Gilbert. Two of her works have been published as cover art; one for The Phoenix Youth Symphony 2018-2019 season playbills and another for the ON Stage Phoenix 2019-2020 Arts Season Preview Guide.

Follow her on Instagram at @rooney7251