Mary Shelley (born 1950 in

Doylestown, Pennsylvania Doylestown is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the borough population was 8,300. Doylestown is located northwest of Trent ...

) is an American folk artist with no formal visual art training. Her art work has variously been described as

naïve Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may ...

, primitive or

self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...

. She graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1972 with a degree in English and Creative Writing, and has lived her entire adult life in Ithaca, NY. She began making her painted low relief woodcarvings in 1974, after her father sent her a painted woodcarving (inspired by the art work of Mario Sanchez, Key West, Florida) that he made of Shelley as a child at the family farm. Shelley worked as a sign painter and carpenter from 1973 to 1990, and learning these trades helped her to develop woodworking and design skills important to her evolution into a visual artist. Her work was shown at the Jay Johnson Folk Heritage Gallery from 1976 through 1990 when the gallery closed. From the start of her career until 2008, she has produced upwards of 2000 painted and carved wooden reliefs. Shelley calls her work a “picture story” or “picture diary”. Many of her pieces are concerned with narrative, the telling of a story, the recording of an event. Shelley plays with metaphor, using cows and waitresses as stand-ins for her life experiences and feelings as a woman. Her work frequently contains veiled social commentary. She tends to work in series, the major among these being her diner, farm, outdoor, animal and dream series.

Work in permanent collections

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

(Washington, DC) *The John Judkin Memorial, American Museum in Britain, (Bath, England) * American Folk Art Museum (New York City, NY) *The

High Museum The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (2 ...

(Atlanta, GA) *

Fenimore Art Museum The Fenimore Art Museum (formerly known as New York State Historical Association) is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, Cooperstown, New York (state), New York on the west side of Otsego Lake (New York), Otsego Lake. Collection strengths ...

(Cooperstown, NY) * The National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC) *Women’s Rights National Historical Park (Seneca Falls, NY) *Anthony Petullo Art Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art (Milwaukee, WI) *

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Art Collection * World of Coca Cola

References

*Quotation of Gerard C. Wertkin, in “Ithacan’s Art earns her trip to Olympics” AP Syndicated story in the Syracuse Herald American, July 7, 1996 *Bishop, Robert and Weissman, Judith Reiter. The Knopf Collectors’ Guides to American Antiques: Folk Art. Knopf. 1983 *Gilbert, Rose Bennett. “Carving her Niche”. County Almanac. Fall 2004. *Johnson, Jay and Ketchum, William C. Jr. American Folk Art of the Twentieth Century. Rizzoli International Publications Press. 1983 *Kaminsky, Marty. “Every Carving Tells a Story”, Highlights for Children, May 2004. *Ketchum, William C. Jr. All-American Folk Arts and Crafts. Rizzoli. 1986 *High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Let it Shine: Self-Taught Art from the T. Marshall Hahn Collection. University Press of Mississippi. 2001 *Lewis, Richard W. Absolut Book: the Absolut Vodka Advertising Story. Tuttle Publishing. 1996. *Nosanow, Barbara Shissler. More than Land or Sky, Art from Appalachia. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. *Rosenak, Chuck and Jan. Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists. Abbeville Press. 1990.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shelley, Mary Michael 1950 births Living people Cornell University alumni American folk artists Sculptors from New York (state) 21st-century American women sculptors 21st-century American sculptors People from Doylestown, Pennsylvania