Mara Korkola

Mara Korkola

Born in Marathon, Ontario, Mara Korkola’s interest in landscape grew out of her childhood experience of living in a remote, Northern bush town. She began to paint landscapes after graduating from the Ontario College of Art and returning home from a year study in Italy. It was that year away from North America that enabled her to fully realize the power, the mystery and simple beauty that the Northern land held for her, and to recognize the effect it had on her when she was growing up. It is, to this day, the basis of her spiritual life. Mara aims for straightforwardness and simplicity in her work. There are no signs of human life; partly to suggest awe and isolation, partly as a vehicle for the spiritual. Her works are almost always, ostensibly, calm, although foreboding in their apparent serenity.