DAPICE, Mary Ellen
some, causing her rigorous set of marks to be thrown out of alignment. Then, to inject further chaos, she would randomly erase certain portions, resulting in blank areas amid a sea of lines.” Another series, “(Des)ordres” (1974), involved seemingly orderly patterns of concentric squares, which she tweaked to make them appear slightly disordered, as if they were vibrating.
Over the years, Molnar continued to explore the tensions between machine-like perfection and the chaos of life itself, as with her 1976 plotter drawing “1% of Disorder,” another deconstructed pattern of concentric squares. “I love order, but I can’t stand it,” she told Obrist. “I make mistakes, I stutter, I mix up my words.” And so, she concluded, “chaos, perhaps, came from this.”
Viewers of her work were not always entranced. Molnar recalled one exhibition at which visitors would, she joked, “look to the side so as not to get some kind of terrible eye affliction from looking at them.” She eventually spoke out, telling a skeptical visitor that computers, like artworks, were made by intelligent humans, and that therefore “the most human art is made by computer, because every last bit of it is a human invention.”
“Oh my, the reactions I got!” she said. “But I survived, you know.”
MARY ELLEN (MARCUM) DAPICE, 78, of Springfield, passed away at Kindred Hospital, Dayton on Thursday morning, December 14, 2023. She was born in Dayton on July 6, 1945, to her loving parents, George and Mary Jo (Moss) Marcum Sr. She is survived by her children, Wander Lynn (Todd) Wyman of Phoenix, Robert (Pamela) Dapice II of Degraff, Tony (Michelle) Dapice, Maria (Gerald “Duke”) Hooper all of Springfield, and Melinda Mcelwee of Urbana; nineteen grandchildren, Brandi, Mike, Breanna, Brendie, Robert III, Trey, Brooke, Zoe, Caleb, Cassy, Shelby, Anthony II, Gabriel, Molly, Mandy, Gerald II “JJ”, Brandon, Melanie, Cason; and seventeen great grandchildren, June, Trey, Logan, Amelia, Jaycee, Octavious, Evelyn, Theo, Bennett, Anthony III, Jackson, Lily, Marlo, Brielle, Aubrey, Kailynne, Ilya, and 2 babies on the way. Also surviving are her siblings, Donna (Bob) Stauffer of Centerville, Kathy “Sis” Hall of Toledo, half-brother Gene (Kate) Marcum of Alabama. She was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Britnie Dapice; son-in-law, Mike Mcelwee; daughter-inlaw, Angel Dapice; siblings, Linda Flint, Janie Cooley, George Marcum Jr.; half-brothers, Virgil Marcum, Richard King; and her beloved doggie Rusty Bucket. Mary was a homemaker, a wonderful loving mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and a humorous loving sister. Mary had a wonderful sense of humor and loved to play jokes on those she loved. A Celebration of Mary’s life will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in the LITTLETON & RUE FUNERAL HOME. The family will receive friends beginning at 9:30 a.m. until the time of service. Burial will be in Glen Haven Memorial Gardens. Memories and condolences may be shared at www.littletonandrue.com