Cloud Mary Bio
Hi. My name is Mary Marzano. I am currently living my dream as an artist. I am trained professionally through university, also many workshops and art mentors. I have successfully exhibited in both solo and group shows. I have a teaching degree in art and taught in schools for fifteen years. I paint commissions as well. I enjoy the personalization that commissions offer my clients.
Though I began my career as a teacher and a portrait artist, my passion for painting evolved to include skyscapes and landscapes. Just like the people I paint, I paint from live observation and from reference photos . I paint the way I see and how my subjects inspire me and make me feel.
Eleven years ago, I experienced the loss of my mother. She was only 89 years old and in good health. She was a strong, humble pillar in our family and lived eleven years widowed without her mate, my amazing father. . At the same time, my sister, so close were we, was fighting cancer. Seven years after my mom, I lost her, too. My two closest feminine spirits gone. I didn’t feel the same about life anymore. I didn’t feel as much joy. I once saw the sky as the inspiration for paintings of joy, Now it became a reminder of how quickly life passes by. The sky with its various cloud shapes and colors provides solace and moments of meditation. The sky also brings back memories in slow motion. Currently my joy is returning again. I’m here to say that our loved ones never leave us. They continue to love us and be present to us from a different plane which is invisible to us. It doesn’t matter as much if you learn to tap into that which cannot be seen. Meditation and prayer has brought me here.
When I named my art business, Cloud Mary Paintings, I realized I might “type cast” myself as a “painter of clouds”. But I decided the name felt right and I rather like it. I have my reasons. Part of it has to do with a play on words and the female musical idol of my youth. You guessed it, the incomparable Miss Tina Turner. “Proud Mary” was blasting out on the radio when I was joy-riding with my little sister next to me in the car just before I got pulled over for my first (not my last) speeding ticket. Margie never let me forget it!! Haha very funny!
Something else helped in choosing Cloud Mary. Margie, my little sis who now channels joy from above, had this habit of always finding something good in everything. For example, If we got bad news, or heard of some impending doomsday in the news, or knew of someone with a disagreeable attitude….Margie would turn it around and inside out until she could find a positive way to look at it. To me, she seemed like the proverbial cloud in the poem by John Milton, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” So I named her my “queen of silver linings” It was her gift that I partially borrowed in coming up with my new name, Cloud Mary.
This website is dedicated to Margie Webb, my beautiful sister, and to Gwen Hudetz, my patient and loving mother. They anchor me from somewhere beyond the clouds. I thank them, love them, and hopefully honor them for the gift of the memories and lessons planted here in my heart. These lessons are woven in to each painting and so is the love that stands strong behind each lesson. I am committed to sharing what I’ve learned so far by painting my feelings on canvas. My hope is to bring forward a message of joy to my viewers.
Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy the rest of CloudMaryPaintings website
Love,
Cloud Mary
Mary Marzano is a teacher and author of articles called “The After School Artist” written and published to inspire and encourage children’s art. In addition to painting, she loves walking, bicycling with her husband, and photographing skies. Most favored is her time spent with family. She enjoys her nine beautiful grandchildren and their exceptional parents.
Contact information:
Cell: 630-779-9023
Artist Statement
Creating quality art requires training, time, and practice. It also requires experience and maturity. As I look back over many years of work and practice, I am confident that I have met those requirements to move my art forward in an organic manner free of academic do’s and don’ts. Gratefully, I learned and followed the rules. Now I get to break them.
I was once introduced as “an accomplished artist.” When does one deserve to be considered “accomplished?” I think that an accomplishment does not always equal the highest award or status. Though, admittedly, I would love to see that happen in the near future. For right now, my accomplishment is having learned to trust in a higher power and allow that power to work through me. Like a runner on the path or a musician in a jam session, I connect with a deeper part of me and enter into a zone. I’ve learned to let go and to trust the soul of me, this higher power, to move me forward and create something far greater than if I had forced only my agenda. If I am an “accomplished artist,” then it is because I have evolved to this state of artistic expression. I’m quite happy of that and grateful.