Forward to Yesterday

Maria S. Martin

April 26th - May 27th

"I did not realize that my childhood years alongside my artist father in his home studio, would be the start of an excitement for creating my own art.  His studio was my play area and where I developed my interest in art and especially collage.  The art instruction I received from Dad was so natural and personal.  Throughout his life he remained my mentor.  Today, as a professional visual artist working mainly in collage, I continue to create non-representational art, on the edge of representational, with mixed media of endless possibilities.  I work with acrylic paints and a variety of gels and mediums for texture and surface treatment. Added designs or markings can by oil pastels, chalk, markers, pencil. Monotype and the print papers and inks help create layers of bright colors for depth, and the background for collaging.  I don’t always know how a painting will end and that unpredictability is very exciting."

Maria studied art in Philadelphia and then at The University of Kansas in Lawrence, and continues to take art studio classes and technique workshops. Since moving to Lawrence in 1984, Maria became active in the art community. While working at the KU Museum of Anthropology 1984-2003 she began coordinating the Lawrence Indian Arts Show and continued that through 2003 when the Indian Arts Show scaled down to only the Haskell Indian Arts Market an ongoing national market for Native North American Indians artisans.  In 1998 through 2007, she opened and operated a gallery specialty shop specializing in American Indian art, jewelry as well as Mexican imports.

Maria received the prestigious City of Lawrence Phoenix Award for Visual Arts in 2002 for her work with the Lawrence Indian Arts Show, and is a recent recipient of a 2023 Best of Show annual juried exhibition award. 

In 2013, Maria returned fulltime to painting.  As a professional visual artist, she has exhibited around the country, and her work is in both cooperate and private collections. She works from her studio, Triptych Art Studios, in the Warehouse Arts District, in Downtown Lawrence, Kansas.

Maria presently serves as President of the Lawrence Art Guild.

You can find Maria's exhibit in the Phoenix Gallery Underground.