Using the visual language of abstraction, hard-edge to expressionistic, Mary Addison Hackett employs a combination of drips and other random marks combined with deliberate brushwork to highlight her interest in the dichotomy of control and the lack of control. Within the abstract, Hackett sees the "intrinsic inability to illustrate, and the ensuing challenge this presents" to both painter and viewer.  Hackett's objective in painting is to build some kind of meaning from the lawless palette of colors and forms within the medium.  Out of the chaos of materials emerge traces of information, partially obscured vocabulary and half-hidden responses to the artist's day-to-day existence.