Mary’s Art – Mary Lee Mattison

Mary’s Art

Big poster I did for the Lowell National Historical Park Ethnic Festivals The original design was pen and ink then printed. It was such a hit I was asked to color (Watercolors) one for Lowell National Historical Park, one for The owner of WLLH, and the third I kept.

**My poster encourages local people to appreciate the history all around them. This piece went on all the Lowel public buses.**

One of my Granddaughters wanted a poster of a pink unicorn. I said, “We don’t buy posters in this family we make them!” So I painted her a huge (20″ x 30″ acrylic on Bainbridge Board) pink unicorn for her room. She was thrilled!

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**CliffJumper Transformer**
Mary Lee Mattison 2020
20″ x 30″ Acrylic on Bainbridge board

Every Apple Tree has its own Shape and Personality.

I love to substitute teach for elementary schools, the younger the kids the better!
I am always a bit sad when I enter a K or Pre-K classroom in the autumn and see the inevitable, identical construction-paper apple tree orchard all lined up along a wall like wooden soldiers. Each one is carefully copied from the teacher’s example and indistinguishable from one another (except for the child’s scrawled name on the back.)

When did you ever see an apple orchard with rows upon rows of the exact same tree? The parents come for an open house and say “How lovely! Which tree is yours?” The students try to figure out, just by looking, which of the duplicate trees they made.

**These apple trees are all the same. Copied exactly from the teacher’s example.**

**These apple trees were left to the**
**child’s own design**

Just for fun, I had my private art class do the same project. I gave them each the exact same apple tree elements. The only instructions I gave was to make an apple tree with 2 rules: It couldn’t look like mine (the top left tree.) and they had to sit where they couldn’t see anyone else’s work. As you can see each tree was different with a unique personality. That’s what a real orchard looks like!