A resident of Bright’s Grove, Ontario, Mary is an artist who works in a variety of media.  Working full-time she has exhibited in several group and solo exhibitions at galleries over the past fifteen years, both regionally and nationally. From the early 1990’s until her solo exhibition, If Remembered, in 2003, she explored the art of portraiture and figurative painting always seeking to push the limits of expression of human form so that by the end of this period, efforts to capture the essence of the person became more important than attempts to portray a physical likeness. After that time, her artistic focus shifted and her art works, which consist primarily of conceptual paintings, explore themes that allow her to incorporate her interest in theology, passion for science, and desire to find visual expression for her thoughts about the human condition.

She had a solo show in 2008 at Sarnia’s Gallery Lambton titled Peregrinatio, meaning “pilgrimage”. This term is used metaphorically to describe an inner spiritual journey or quest. In that show her work engaged the physical world. The earth holds a narrative, a story that reaches from a distant past to a future yet to be fully revealed. The artwork for that exhibit references earth’s fossils, geodes, geological formations, and petrified wood. Through this work the objects are used as metaphors for memory, transformation, legacy and transcendence. The Elements is one of the works from that show.

Working in a variety of media, Mary is currently developing a series of artworks that integrate science and art to create a metaphorical cabinet of botanical study. In an attempt to understand and to wrestle with issues surrounding ownership, bounty, blessing, sanctification, use and misuse of our natural environment, she has focused her artistic lens on her own yard, its soil, its seeds, and its flora.

jabma@cogeco.can