Creates attained her bachelor"s in art education at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, attending from 1970 – 1974. She traveled to Venice, Italy in 1973 as part of the university"s Art and Architecture Study. In 1975 she was selected as a Canadian delegate to France for an Architecture Study Program.
A major theme of her work is the relationship between human beings and the land. She often photographs subtle traces and marks of human presence in natural environments. Her work has been shown in over 300 exhibitions across the world.
The exhibition "gently invites us to think about how we belong to the land, and how we leave our touch upon lieutenant" Initial Career 1980-1985 As part of the Art Gallery of Ontario Extension Services "Artist with their Work" Program, Creates exhibited a collection of thirteen cibachrome photographs of landscapes on the east and west coasts of Canada, England, Wales, and Ireland.
In describing the exhibit she says: "The actions of nature may seem random or unpredictable. The way smooth stones sit naturally at the shore appears to have no organization.
I have found though, that if I manipulate any of them, the interference is obvious. The kind of order I impose is unlikely to occur naturally.
But the imposition is slight.
The next high tide will disturb my arrangement and re-organize the elements again. Nature is never finished." As a part of the exhibit, Creates also hosted an illustrated lecture and landscape art workshop with local participants in the Thunder bay region. Creates also toured with the exhibit to Windsor.
Bibliography Jenkner, Ingrid.
Kathleen Ritter (1998). Marlene Creates: Language and Land Use, Newfoundland 1994.
Halifax: MSVU Art Gallery.
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
