Mari Hall

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of four, my family moved to California. I was raised in Los Angeles and grew up in a multicultural environment. I lived in Los Angeles until I went to college, at which time I moved to Santa Barbara, California. The beauty of the area attracted me more than the reputation of the school. It was in Santa Barbara that I rediscovered my artistic inclinations. As a child, I was always drawing or making something. I remember drawing very detailed pictures of the Virgin Mary, inspired by the religious art in my church. Art classes were always my favorite. Also I remember in 6th grade having a fun project of building a medieval city. I built a castle (with a drawbridge and moat). I won a prize for the project.

However, I never thought of myself as an artist, nor of art as a career. There was a turning point though, when I was in college, that set me upon the path that I find myself some 20 years later. I was an English major, and I was daydreaming in one of my English classes. Some part of me "tuned in" long enough to hear my teacher say something so profound, so soul wrenching, that I went out and bought a sketch pad and pencils that day. He said that the next few years would be very important for us as young adults and that Life had a way of rolling along. He said that if there were anything important we had abandoned in life that now was the time to go back to it, before it was too late. I had forgotten about my passion for art. I hadn't drawn in years! It was a shocking revelation for me. It was like some very important part of me had disappeared. I started drawing again and never looked back.

Since this happened in my senior year of college, and I did not have money to pursue art school, I decided to take occasional classes and study on my own. I went to the library and checked out books on some of the artists that I admired the most: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. I copied their drawings and sculptures, until I understood their sense of line and form. Then I made a trip to Paris in my mid-twenties. I visited the Louvre, but it was when I visited the Impressionist museum, that I realized my calling was with paint. Standing among the Masters of Color, I was in awe and on fire to learn all that I could to understand the mysteries of color as expression. Once I had my mind settled on painting, I was relentless. It was an all-consuming passion. However, I was self-supporting and I had to earn a living so I was more or less confined to painting on a part-time basis. I remember one summer that was spent just mixing colors. I was still trying to understand how to make color spread, how to make it harmonious, so that was all I did. I was fortunate enough to have found a book at the UCLA library. It was a book of lecture notes written by Paul Klee when he was an instructor at the Bauhaus. After studying this book, and mixing colors for 4 months, I finally understood how to express myself with color.

For a couple of years, I lived in Haiti. Living there had an enormous impact on my life and my art work. There is a certain kind of simplicity and freedom in Haitian art work that I found to be very appealing. I eventually incorporated that sensibility into my own work. It was during this time that my art work began to blossom. I was still very much in the learning phase of painting, but at last I was beginning to see the possibilities in my painting. I returned to the U.S., and resumed living in Los Angeles. By this point, I was having shows and selling work, attracting folks who were interested in collecting my work as they could see the beauty in my painting.

But then Life threw me a curve ball and I ended up moving to Seattle, Washington. And since Life sometimes presents strange twists and turns, the first curve ball was followed by yet another. In 1992, I was injured. The injuries were very extensive, left me bed-ridden for a year, followed by yet another injury that left me unable to walk for almost a year. My art career came to a screeching halt while I worked on healing the injuries. I continued to paint when I was able to do so, but I was not able to get out much. I did have a couple of shows, but my activity in the art community was severely curtailed. And dealing with chronic pain consumed a lot of my extra energy. But when I look back on this time, I see it as a "cocooning" period. My art work blossomed in adversity. It was during this time that I painted the Haitian and Meditation series, starting working in watercolor and gouache in addition to oil paint, and developed my line art style. I found my voice with my art work in the midst of this calamity. I also found my subject matter. I realized, from my experiences in Haiti, and from the events in my life, how important it is to remain hopeful and positive in life. I wanted my art work to inspire people to reach for good things, high goals, to be sensitive to each other and to the planet, to cherish this magnificent garden we call home, to cherish and love each other. Life is so fragile and so precious. I wanted my art work to be a voice for celebration of life. So the "curve balls" I encountered were just to set me on the right path after all! I still live in Seattle, Washington, and I still am healing the injuries. With the help and love of my family and friends, I am well on the road to full recovery.

My subjects for paintings are usually women. Like most artists, I am expressing a part of myself in my paintings. But on a different level, I am expressing the resurgence of what I like to call "The Feminine Principle". By that I mean, the resurgence of feminine energy and concerns. The concerns for the environment, the issues with family and nurturing of others, the interest in older civilizations and religions, these all point to feminine energy and concerns. These themes are recurrent in my work. Most recently I have been painting Madonna and Child themes. I have a particular fondness for this theme. One of my favorite painters, whom I studied closely when teaching myself to draw and paint, is Raphael. I went back to this painters' work to develop the studies for my recent Madonna paintings. I see the Madonna and Child as symbolic of what is dearest in life, the close bond of love and nurturing between a mother and child. On a more cosmic level, I see this as the basis for our humanity. Expressing love and giving love to one another, caring for our land and protecting all creatures under our dominion, is what I see represented in the simple Madonna and Child imagery.

I have been showing my art work professionally for nearly 20 years. My art work has been collected by art lovers in the United States, Europe and the Carribean.


What I do when I am not painting!

I know it's not possible to paint 24/7 (although sometimes it seems like I am trying to do just that!)...But when the paintings are drying or it's a fine summer's day, or a host of other things to divert my attention, I actually STOP making art for awhile.

So here's some of my favorite things:

BASKETBALL! I love the NBA! It's fantastic that Michael Jordan is back again, playing with the Washington Wizards. And the Western Conference teams are so fantastic this year. The Sacramento Kings is my favorite team for the Western Conference. I can't wait until the playoffs begin!

MUSIC! All kinds, I love all kinds of music, and I still love Tower Records. One time I went to Tower Records with a friend of mine (also a music fan) and we were in the store for SO long that the folks at Tower almost towed our car (we stayed past the 3 hours of free parking time..)

STARS! Not the movie kind, although they are fine (I just don't know any, ha ha), no I mean UP THERE ABOVE. I love the Hubble Telescope. There are fantastic images of what the great eye in the sky has photographed. Some really great ones are available at the Hubble Space Telescope project at the NASA site. Be sure to check out the Image gallery!

PUPPIES! I love taking our little wire haired terrier to the park for walks! Check out the fox terrier breed at the official AKC site.

YOGA! Yoga is a fantastic discipline for keeping the mind and body in one piece. Things in daily life are so fast and intense, it really helps to slooooww down. There are lots of web sites for yoga. The Yoga Research and Education center has lots of helpful information, and an on-line tour for beginners!

BOOKS! I read lots of different things. Like my taste in music, my reading list is very diverse. I do have a particular fondness for Stephen King. While he is mostly known for his horror stories, some of his more esoteric works are my favorites, in particular the Dark Tower series (Blaine the Mono is my fav!). Mr. King has an official web site chock full of goodies about the author.

I am also ardent Sci-Fi fan. I am always hunting for some good science fiction, so if you have recommendations, let me know. Recently I discovered a local Seattle author, Joshua Ortega. He wrote a wonderful book called "Frequencies" that is a great read with lots of "the future is now" scenarios. Here's a link to his web site, Omega Point Productions.

HAITI! I love Haiti and I love Haitian art work! There are some new web sites on the internet featuring excellent Haitian art work. Most recently I found this site, ARTMEDIAHAITI.COM. It has great art work, and wonderful recipes for Haitian cuisine.

For more info visit www.marizart.com