Studio Practice Spotlight: Mary Bush
About Mary:
Like many of the students/artists at Paisley Studios, Mary has been coming to the studio weekly for many years. She joined the Studio Practice class after finding the studio on Next Door (way back when it was on SE 10th & Pine). She had previously taken many types of classes, but she was looking for something different.
All images were made in the Studio Practice Class: Large skeleton study on the wall, charcoal hand study, and a series of watercolor self-portraits.
“I read that the studio supported women in their artistic endeavors and that sounded really open to me, which is what I was looking for. I wanted something more open.”
“I never thought of calling it a practice, but that is what (the class) has given me, a practice. I know that every week, I will go and do art. So it is a practice, it sustains my need to make art. Your support, the support of the other students, the camaraderie, the whole environment is conducive to that.
I think my art has changed and improved, I sometimes feel more confident when I draw like I actually know what I am doing. I am more willing to take risks, I am also more willing to take on something that feels very new and then stick with it.
I know I have a tendency to only do what I am comfortable with and I have a tendency to give up if it doesn’t go my way. I am learning not to do that as much and take my mistakes as learning experiences. Watercolor, which is my new medium, is very challenging, but I want to persist and conquer it.” —MB
“Being at the studio makes me want to make more art. It encourages me to go further, to do it more frequently.”
