Mary Fuller is an impressionist painter based in New Mexico. With an arrayed background in writing, acting, and education, through her paintings, Mary explores her conflicting understanding of what society has blanketed her with – safe, non-disruptive images viewed in easily digestible forms vs. her exploratory perceptions of cultural influences, sex/the naked self, music, and mental health.

Raised in Colorado with a love for artistic expression, Mary graduated with a BA in Acting and Directing Theatre. While pursuing a career in theater and film in New York City in the daylight, Mary could often be found sketching the vivacious nightlife of live jazz musicians and swing dancers all around the city. It was an onlooker of her pencil and ink sketches that pointed her in the direction of Bridgeview School of Fine Arts. Here she found the love and developed the skill of oil painting. Mary was able to do things with paint, she only dreamed of doing as an actor and thus, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Mary was able to transition her artistry from acting into painting, finding peace and catharsis in this solitary creative act.

She has traveled around the US, France (Vetheuil, Auvers-sur-Oise, Paris) and Rome, Italy and has sought the inspiration she finds in people, landscapes, and structures, alongside the thrills that new and old cities bring. The place that holds the most comfort for her is inside her own home studio with her sweet animal companions.

Mary has always maintained a genuine joy and curiosity of people and of experiences, though her life has not been all peaches and rose gardens. In a non-traditional American home with divorced parents, Mary grew up as a middle child with undiagnosed learning disabilities between two brilliant, yet physically disabled brothers. When she was ages 15 and 16, Mary met the devastating losses of both her brothers, and then began navigating both good and tumultuous relationships she had with her parents and herself- each one housing their own chosen vices of coping.

Fortunately, Mary has been able to harness and direct her attention toward leadership roles over time including those held at Film at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in theatrical direction, and in teaching life skills and school subjects to young neurotypical and neurodivergent children. Her art has exhibited in group shows in Colorado, France, and New Mexico and is held in private collections around the US. She continues to pursue the mentorship of working artists and she takes various classes and workshops regularly to hone her craft.

Primarily working in oil paint, Mary stays open to change and growth as her artistry evolves. With a myriad of projects in process at once, she alternates her specified attention from piece to piece. Join Mary as she uncovers parts of herself (you may recognize some of your own here) and as she continues to dance through life’s musings.