Artist Margot Datz has hosted 11 annual one-night shows, but this year’s event surrounding the theme, Danger and DeLight, is especially impactful. After a cancer diagnosis, which, luckily as Datz puts it, will “have a happy ending,” her artwork began to reflect moments from her road to recovery.
Her piece, “Betty Burned Her Bonnet for a Better View,” was the first painting on the trail. “This whole adventure was all about perception, attitudes, and my own way of turning it into something beautiful and useful. I had to burn my bonnet. Of course, my paintings were reflective of that.”
Another piece, “Lipstick On A Pig,” describes her time at Mass General. “My sweetheart and I got to know Boston. We’d hike Beacon Hill to the hospital, visit museums, stick our noses into cool little shops. It was our way of putting lipstick on a pig, of making the very best of a bad situation.”
During her treatments, Datz noticed that there was a “fairytale quality to many of her pieces. A little girl traveling alone in the night, or children lost in the dark forest, a child that had to cross a crumbling bridge, and similar themes kept resurfacing in [her] work.” Preparing for the show, she began to realize that paintings from recent past shows intuitively threaded their way into what she would experience last winter and spring. Datz notes that, “I began to see a storyline, like a fairytale, take shape.” In order to create this visual storyline, Datz will exhibit some works from the past, as well as her new work.
Margot Datz’s art show is one night only, Saturday August 3, from 4 to 8 pm. She will be exhibiting her original work, as well as limited edition prints, and works from the past at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. For more information, please email her at margotdatz@gmail.com.
