Mary Muller
Mary Muller was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1934. She is the second of four children. Her family moved a lot, living in Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York. From sixth grade through high school, she grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She received her B.A. in art from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, in 1956. After getting married and having five children, she returned to art and studied with Dimitar Krustev and Robert Brackman. She taught at the Art Center for twenty years, and still teaches painting and drawing in her home studio, and continues her own work. She has painted many portraits, including one of Governor Terry Branstad.
"or over one hundred years, the world has been reeling with changes; with psychological, progressive, dreadful and catastrophic changes. I sense a need for a stabilizing influence or balance from which, no doubt, will grow new directions for the artist. I do not feel that ugliness, despair or shock are necessary criteria for art, although they seem to create a lot of excitement in the world of those who determine what art is.
Nature, architecture and the human face all present aspects of balance to me—the familiar perhaps—but still very exciting. This is what I know best. New observations enlarge the proportion of the sky (with its ever-changing patterns) to the earth. They also squeeze it at the top of the composition to give the terrain a turn with its natural perspective journeying from the front to the back of the painting.
A change of medium and subject matter is stimulating even, necessary for me. Landscape provides a welcome change from portrait work. The human likeness, the most difficult subject matter to capture, is nothing without a feeling of the character of the model and the artist's love for people. I personally want my subjects to breathe from the canvas. I want their presence to be felt.
My discovery of late involves the merit of a bright, warm ground beneath the pastel chalks and oils. This causes a challenge to the relationships of color. I create problems and my vision finds its expression through their solutions. I am constantly finding new ways of looking at subjects and perceiving things I have never noticed before.
I feel the artist helps others to see differently. I hope this is a result of my work because I have been given so many incredible views." - Mary Muller
SOURCE - http://www.lucidplanet.com/iwa/ArtistPages/mullerm.php (Oct 2025)
