MARY STORMS

Mary Storms was born 1953 and raised just outside of Boston. Her family was fortunate to spend summers at her grandmother's old camp house on several wooded acres adjacent to Walden Pond. Together with her brother and sisters and along with an ever-revolving flock of cousins, she explored every inch of the property. They climbed rock outcroppings, built tree forts, paddled up and down the Sudbury River, hunted for Lady Slippers, sang with the tree frogs and danced with the fireflies. Her imagination ran at full tilt day and night fueled by this outdoor wonderland. But, ironically, it wasn't until she left this wonderland far behind, that her creative spirit was truly stirred. 

It was 1967: "the summer of love". Once school let out, her mother, hell-bent on leaving town after the sudden death of her father, sold the house and most everything in it. She piled the kids in the car and off they went, heading west to the Golden State. It was during this journey, her first trip away from the only home she had known, that she witnessed the overwhelming expanse, power and beauty of our natural environment. From the open car window, she stared transfixed as one bedazzling landscape after another whizzed by. When they had reached the Golden Gate Bridge, her love affair with nature began in earnest. 

Several decades and a few cross-country trips later, having made Raleigh, NC home, Storms is still smitten. Whether it's a distant sun-drenched butte in the Painted Desert or a twisted, gnarly clump of roots underfoot at a city park, nature's own works of art take her breath away. For Mary, there is nothing more stunning on Earth than the very earth itself. This is what inspires her work. 

Storms always dabbled in art throughout her life, but it wasn't until 1999 that she began to pursue art more seriously. She felt the need to put paper and paint to canvas and express her vision of the earth. With the millennium just around the corner and realizing that she wasn't getting any younger, she gave notice to her boss, husband and kids and went out and bought the best paints, paper, canvas and brushes she could afford and got down to business. She has not regretted a moment since.