Mary Stern Grossman

Biography

I was born in 1944 in NYC and attended a progressive school from kindergarten through high school. It was there that I became passionate about painting and sculpture, and art in general.

After I graduated high school, I went to a small jr college, in Boston for one year. But that college wasn’t for me. After that in 1962 I attended Parsons School of Design. After a year and a half I had a sense of what I wanted to concentrate on. I became a full time student at the Art Students League. For 2 1/2 years I worked in a variety of art mediums excited by what each had to offer. All along I had been taking pictures with my camera. I had a small darkroom in my apartment and spent hours on end developing photographs . I loved the mystery of my photos coming to light.

After a series of jobs, mostly in photography, I got married and spent 2 years overseas in Algeria and in Paris, France. There I learned silk screening and began my yoga practice.

After returning to NYC, I returned to clay but this time in the form of ceramics. I had a child in 1982. And began working with fabrics, weaving, tie and dye, and batik, as well as monotypes and etching.

In 2001 I was accepted into the Certificate Program at the NY Studio School for Painting studying first with Rosemary Beck, then with Graham Nickson, and finally with Stanley Lewis. I received my certificate in 2005.

I have been painting on my own since then and have been part of numerous group shows and have had 5 solo exhibitions: In NYC: 3 at the Cornelia Street Cafe, 1 in a Beauty Salon, and 1 in Amagansett, NY in a Real Estate Office. I was a member of a gallery for 2 years in Amagansett, NY where I had 2 one person exhibitions.