Artist Statement
I once impulsively described myself as an accidental artist; on reflection, I
think this must be because the work I like best has come from periods of
wandering and play, or from improvising with pieces of earlier work,
rearranging things into a more coherent whole. Acrylics, water soluble
crayons, pens, papers, fabric and thread, glue and scissors are very
amenable to this process and can sustain the accidental flow that wakes
me up.  
 
Often I work from a still life set-up with my favorite domestic objects -
dishes, flowers, and small statues.  Or I look at a painting I admire as a way
to then improvise on its composition or color. Occasionally I work from
photographs, beginning upside down for best effect. 
 
My day job as a psychoanalyst has brought me back into touch with a lost
creative drive.  It seems to take me, on its own steam, to places I can later
study with a more purposeful eye, as with dreams and session notes. This
process began in 2001 with blind contour sketches of nearby objects on a
summer vacation.  Later I began to add color or collage.  When I am not
clear yet what I want to make next, these blind exercises (looking only at
the subject, not at the paper) serve as useful warmups. Sometimes I like
them enough to frame them as a series or transform them into larger
pieces.   During the pandemic lock-down I returned to hand-stitching, a
practice I enjoyed as a child.
 

Represented by Three Stones Gallery, Galaray House, Gallery 1581

CV 
 

Awards

Fall 2024, Roddy Exhibition, Concord Art Association, Juror's Prize

Spring 2023, National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Juror’s Choice Award

October 2022, “BLUE” Cambridge Art Association, awarded Best in Show 

 

One and two-person shows
Winter 2026, Double Vision; the inner landscape of two psychotherapists,
with Christopher Gil, Bedford Library
Winter 2025, Gallery 1581, Form and Flow, with Valerie Spain
2019, Cambridge Health Associates, “Free Association”, solo show 
March 2022, Cambridge Health Associates, “Meditations From the
Quarantine Studio”, solo show 
Fall 2022, Lincoln Library, Solo Exhibition

Juried group shows:
Spring 2026: Three Stones Gallery, Turns and Twists, Featured Artist
Spring 2026, Concord Art Association, members’ show Flowers
Spring 2026, Blue, Cambridge Art Association
Winter 2026, Soft Structures, Newburyport Art Association
Winter 2026, Shipping Up to Boston, Cambridge Art Association
Winter 2026, Cambridge Art Association, National Prize Show
Fall 2025, Cambridge Art Association, Member's Prize Show
Fall 2025, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Annual Show
Spring 2025, Still Life, Concord Art Association
Spring 2025, Galaray House Fine Art Fair, Newport Polo Grounds
Winter 2025, Guest Artist, Paint, Pencil Paper, Three Stones Gallery
Winter 2025, Members’ Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association
Winter 2025, Immigration; Joys and Hardships, Roslindale Public Library
Winter 2025, Concord Art Association, Members Painting and Sculpture 
Winter 2024, Small Works, Bromfield Gallery
Winter 2024, Aura, Cambridge Art Association
Fall 2024, Roddy Exhibition, Concord Art Association, Juror's Prize

Fall 2024, Fall Salon, Cambridge Art Association
Summer 2024, Guest Artist, Call Me Forward Call Me Back, Three Stones
Gallery
Winter 2023, Members’ Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association
Fall 2023, (A)Temporal, Cambridge Art Association
Fall 2023, Member’s Juried 1, Concord Art Association
Summer 2023, guest artist, The Chi of Everything, Three Stones Gallery,
Concord, Ma.
Spring/Summer 2023, Annual Juried Exhibition, Danforth Museum 
Spring 2023, Artesis Gallery, pop-up show, Tavira, Portugal
Spring 2023, “Myra Wilson and Friends”, Honeyjones Studio
Spring 2023, “Hand Me Down”, Gallery 263
Spring 2023, “100: Commemorating the Hundredth Anniversary of the
Attleboro Arts Museum”
Winter 2023 to 2025, Styylish, antique shop, Belmont, Ma.
Winter 2023, Members Prize Show, Concord Art Association
Winter 2023, Member’s Juried #2 Show, Concord Art Association
Fall 2022, Roddy Exhibition, Concord Art Association
June 2022, Regional Juried Show, Newburyport Art Association 
May 2022, “Variations” Marblehead Art Association 
October 2022, “BLUE” Cambridge Art Association, awarded Best in Show 
March 2022, Cambridge Art Association, Members Prize Show 
2019, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Free Association 
2018, 2019, Open Studios, Cambridge

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Press and Artist Talks

2026, Read coverage of Mara's work in Artscope Magazine July/August 2026 edition
2025, Read Mara's interview with CanvasRebel 

2023 Surface Design Magazine
October 2022, “BLUE” Artist Talk, Cambridge Art Association 
Winter 2023, Member’s Prize Show artist talk, Cambridge Art Association
An article featuring my curatorial work at Gallery 1581 appeared in the Arts
Outlook section of Brookline Magazine in May 2007; Curious Curator
 

Curator

In 2003 I founded and managed Gallery 1581 inside the Boston Graduate
School of Psychoanalysis, where I teach and practice.  Our mission is to
create a space for dialogue and interaction between artists and
psychoanalysts, both of whom draw heavily on images from the
unconscious. Gallery 1581 has held exhibitions as often as once a month
and as rarely as once a year, most recently to fund scholarship programs.

Fall 2024, Gallery 1581, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, pARTners

Picture Social Justice and Human Rights

Memberships  

Concord Art Association  

Cambridge Art Association 

Newburyport Art Association 

 

Study 

Nancy Gruskin,  Emily Passman, Concord Art Association   

Kimberly Becker, Berri Kramer, Flying With Scissors Studio 

Catherine Kehoe, Jennifer Pochinski, Erin Raedeke, Black Pond Studio 

Matt Klos, Tavira Portugal

Jenny Nelson, online

Education
B.A. Tufts University, 1976
Psy.D. Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 1985
Certificate in Psychoanalysis, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, 1999

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