About
Prices of original work generally vary from $500 to $2,500. Some prices are noted on each page. Prints priced by size.
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"Vibrant and jewel-like, Mara’s work in various media is both challenging and approachable. It is layered and complex and evokes feelings of delight and joy. I am lucky to have a piece that brings me continued pleasure."
- Nancy M.
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. Recently I tried my hand at plein air oils.
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. Most recently my work is moving in a more abstract direction.
Biography
I began making art in 2001, beginning with blind contour drawing and moving to collage, acrylic painting and hand-stitching. Most recently I began to move in a more abstract direction.
In 2003 I founded and managed a gallery inside the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, where I teach and practice. Our mission was 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. I managed and/or executed all aspects of the gallery duties, including conceiving of themes, publicizing calls for work, selecting work, curating, hanging, sales, and eventually acquisition of a permanent collection. For many of the exhibitions I arranged artist talks or workshops to accompany the work. My own work was often in the exhibits, sometimes as the invitation image.
An article featuring my curatorial work at Gallery 1581 appeared in the Arts Outlook section of Brookline Magazine in May 2007; Curious Curator.
I assisted for several semesters in the mid 2000’s at Mass College of Art and Design in a graduate course for media designers, “Design as Experience” helping connect the students with unconscious layers of their creations, with an eye toward the eventual users of their products and served as a thesis adviser.
I am a member of Concord Art Association, Cambridge Art Association, Newburyport Art
Association, and Surface Design Association. I have studied with Nancy Gruskin and Emily Passman through Concord Art Association; Kimberly Becker and Berri Kramer of Flying With Scissors Studio; and at Black Pond Studio with Catherine Kehoe, Jennifer Pochinski and Erin Raedeke. Finally, Matt Klos in Tavira Portugal.
My work has been shown at:
Three Stones Gallery, June - July 2023 guest artist
Gallery 1581, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, ongoing
Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, ongoing
Attleboro Art Museum
Danforth Museum
Gallery 263
Cambridge Health Associates
Marblehead Arts Association
Cambridge Art Association
Concord Art Association
Newburyport Art Association
Honeyjones Studio
Styylish
Goodenow Library
Lincoln Library
Cambridge Open Studios
Starbucks
Real Estate Stagings by Nellie Aikenhead
and private collections
CV
Exhibitions
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, National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Juror’s Choice Award
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 present, Styylish, antique shop, Belmont, Ma.
Winter 2023, Member’s Prize Show artist talks, Cambridge Art Association
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
Fall 2022, Lincoln Library, Solo Exhibition
June 2022, Regional Juried Show, Newburyport Art Association
May 2022, “Variations” Marblehead Art Association
October 2022, “BLUE” Cambridge Art Association, awarded Best in Show
October 2022, “BLUE” Artist Talks at Cambridge Art Association
March 2022, Cambridge Art Association, Members Prize Show
March 2022, Cambridge Health Associates, “Meditations From the Quarantine Studio”, solo show
2019, Cambridge Health Associates, “Free Association”, solo show
2019, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, “Free Association”
2018, Open Studios, Cambridge
2019, Open Studios, Cambridge
2001-present, Gallery 1581, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
Past Showings
Concord Art Association, previous juried exhibitions
Newburyport Art Association, previous juried exhibitions
Goodenow Library, Sudbury, Ma. Solo show
Memberships
Concord Art Association
Cambridge Art Association
Newburyport Art Association
Surface Design 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