About
Bio
Mary Elizabeth Marshall is an artist devoted to painting and writing. Fascinated by colour and words she has sought to develop her artistic expression in both media.
In 1992, Ms. Marshall began an intensive Bachelor of Arts program at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. She graduated in 1996 and was awarded the presidential scholarship for academic success in Literature, Philosophy, and Political Science. Her study of literature bloomed into a passion for poetry, which she began to study at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. In 2004, she published a volume of poems with Delirium Press entitled The Emily Dickinson Poems. Two years later, she received a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University. While living in Montreal, she also taught at an inner city high school. Combining her passion for teaching with her love of the arts, she encouraged her students to explore their own creativity through poetry.
In 2007, Ms. Marshall began theological studies at the Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario, exploring her interest in Catholic mysticism. She also furthered her artistic formation by taking studio classes at the Ottawa School of Art.
In November 2007, Ms. Marshall presented in her home an exposition of 20 paintings with accompanying poetry. The same show was later hosted by the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa. Christmas 2007 presented Ms. Marshall with an opportunity to co-write a dramatic musical entitled "Hope in Every Home". The production was directed and staged by her brother Caleb Marshall, and shown at The Playhouse in the Marshall’s hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
In the spring of 2008, Ms. Marshall was among the local artists solicited by the Ottawa School of Art to create paintings that would be shown in Italy as a gesture of Canadian participation in an annual Italian festival of the arts. To prepare for this project, Ms. Marshall created a series of paintings entitled "Environment - Canadian and Italian". These paintings were displayed at "Four Cuisines Bistro" and "Ciccio's Café", both located in Ottawa's Little Italy. Two pieces in this series were subsequently sold at an auction hosted by Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. The painting created for the festival itself was entitled "The Eternal City".
Ms. Marshall currently gives a bi-monthly painting workshop at the Ottawa Children's Aid Society for youth in care.
Artist's Statement
Détachment – the act of gracefully surrendering to the Divine movement without hesitation.
The artist is to be as a paintbrush for God who acts through him/her as Primary Artist. The self or the secondary artist is participating, again, in the first creative act. It is this spiritual relationship - the coming and going – the movement of the secondary artist via the Primary Artist that is transmitted to the viewer in light, colour and line; the work as a whole. A painting always expresses the artist’s inner life and is meant, purposefully, to draw and resonate within the observer’s soul.
The authentic artist creates art as a response to an inner calling. In answering his/her call the artist speaks outwardly to the viewers in the immediacy of their relation to the work, then through introspection and finally through dialogue with others. The artwork itself is created as a response to this inner call. The inner call of the artist is an invitation to live an unlimited freedom of potentiality in the opening of life’s becoming in and with being.