Mary L. Sottung

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Bio:

Mary L Sottung grew up in Pulaski, NY (original name : Fishville  | population : 2,033), the middle of five daughters. Her sisters use many colourful adjectives to describe her, but ‘wilful’ and ‘naughty’ are frequent choices. Preferring creative endeavors over maths and sciences - and reading in general - she enrolled in the Arts at Buffalo State. When professors began to favour her colleagues’ all white paintings (/blank canvas) and shock art (/toilet plunger glued to CPR dummy) over her realistic botanical colourings and charcoal nudes, she realised she better have a backup plan. She graduated with a BS in Art Education, after spending a life-defining semester in Sienna, Italy.

Choosing to remain close to home - as one did back then - Mary took the first job available as the art teacher at Phoenix High School. Soon married and on maternity leave, a job opened up at a location even closer to her new home in Pulaski. She became the art teacher at A.P.W. Middle School. Well liked by students and faculty, she was instrumental in persuading the local paper company to donate paper and art supplies to fill the gap left by annual budget cuts. She also helped to found and grow the Salmon River Fine Arts Centre, in Pulaski, featuring the works of local artists, hosting community events and engaging children.

Thirty years went by; her retirement fund increased, her children left home to attend college, her stained glass work garnered her a fan following and she was commissioned to create a new stained glass arch at the church her grandmother attended in Newport, NY. At sixty years old, newly retired and single, she embarked upon an cross country road trip with her daughter, recently returned from living in India. For nine months they travelled in an RV with a three pronged mission : visit as many State/ National Parks, Art Museums /Galleries ad Happy Hours as possible. When her daughter retuned to Mumbai, she moved in with her older sister along the Hudson River, displaying her work in exhibitions and playing an active role in the Newburgh Art Center and Newburgh Artist Open Studios.

When her son bore her the first grandchild, she moved closer to them on the New England seacoast. Her stained glass windows and new collection of acrylic on fabric found homes in multiple exhibitions at the Kittery Art Center and the Black Birch Gallery.

While she works across many mediums, her current passion is travelling to the far corners of the globe – Cecina (IT) | Amsterdam (NL) | Mumbai, Jaipur, Kochi, Goa (IN) | New Orleans (LA) - to seek out and bring home bright coloured and exotic fabrics on which to paint. She hand stretches the fabrics and allows the spirit and pattern of the fabric to inspire her hand.

She thrives on the challenges and opportunities of private commissions – understanding her clients, connecting with the fabrics that they bring (old saris from a wedding, a cotton beach sheet from a vacation in Cancun), or sourcing a unique and exciting piece, and then creating a contemporary, yet sentimental, painting, that they will forever treasure.

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Info is from her website: www.marylsottung.com