You can almost feel the warm, moist air and the alluring scent of the tropics when you enter Nisa Mars’s new exhibition, “‘Okika.” The word translates from Hawaiian as “orchids,” and the show runs through July 13, curated by the Featherstone Center for the Arts at the Feldman Family Artspace within the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. Mars’ reverse painting on glass captures the vitality of orchids in all shapes and sizes without seeking to replicate them in exact detail.
She was born in the warm climes of St. Croix and lived for three years, from the ages of 8 to 11, in Hawaii, where orchids thrive. Speaking of her passion for the flower, Mars says, “I have many in my home. I find them absolutely beautiful. My husband and I have a place in Panama, and some of the rarest orchids in the world are there growing on the trees.”
While Mars may study books and live orchids for inspiration, she does not preplan her compositions, which she paints in reverse on a pane of glass. “You have to know the end of the painting before you start it, and build from there. I step into another realm when I’m working. But I don’t have any idea of how it looks when I’m painting until I turn the glass around.” She continues about the conventional method of painting, “I can’t paint straight. For the reverse part of it, my brain goes ‘click,’ and it just makes sense.”
Mars uses chalk paints and acrylics, sometimes mixing in actual ground flowers, ground gems, and gold dust. The latter two lend a glittery brilliance that augments her already intense colors. “When you paint on glass, if you mix different things in with the paint, it does really cool things,” she comments.
Mars’ palette bursts with purples, violets, and pinks in a wide range of shades. The large close-ups of the flowers on the glass pane seem to leap off the surface. She paints the abstract background on a piece of plywood that evokes a tropical jungle, which is placed behind the glass image. Mars’ husband and collaborator, Ben Ramsey, crafts ash frames, whose width transforms the multi-layered works into shadow boxes that lend each piece physical depth.
Mars works on about seven paintings simultaneously, creating the reverse images on glass and the backgrounds separately. She typically mixes and matches them until the combinations feel right. “I can say, ‘Oh, that background looks so much better with this one.’
The 17 paintings in the show belong to a larger body of work, which currently numbers approximately 50: “I always paint in collections. For instance, I have one called ‘Atlantis,’ which is all underwater, and ‘Avian,’ which is all birds.”
At their essence, Mars’ alluring artworks capture her profound connection to nature and animals: “I was born that way. I was feeding sea urchins carrots when I was 2 years old. I think that connection to the natural realm is what comes out of me when I paint. I don’t intend to make anything look real. It’s my interpretation from the places I get to go when I’m painting.”
When recalling how she came to live on the Vineyard, Mars relates that she grew up in a small fisherman’s cottage in St. Croix with her parents. When her father was building his boat, he befriended a boatbuilder who had come to the Island and mentioned it to Mars’ folks. “I have twin brothers who were just born, and my mother wanted to do something different with her kids. So, we sailed up here in 1973.”
Long involved in her primary business, Nisafit, Mars didn’t start painting until her forties. She had no formal training, and initially began creating reverse paintings on glass that were part of furniture pieces, such as armoires or vanities. However, she marks the beginning of her painting career as the COVID-19 pandemic: “It was either do something beautiful or end up in a straitjacket. I needed an outlet that brought me joy during that period. I was struggling, as I’m sure most people were. It became such a beautiful focus for me to paint flowers during the winter of complete madness.”
Looking at the bounty on the wall, Mars says, “I am happy and joyful when I paint. I just want to do it all the time. And I love sharing my art and having people get to see it.”
“Okika” is on view at the M.V. Film Center until July 13. For more information, visit featherstoneart.org. For additional information on Nisa Mars, visit nisamars.com, instagram.com/nisa.mars, and bit.ly/FB_NisaMars.
