Mary Anne Schmaling

Mary Anne grew up in Rockford, Illinois with a passion for creating art which was introduced at any early age and fostered by her mother. Her BS education at the University of Iowa and career path led her into a medical field for 38 years, meanwhile raising a family and building a family business with her husband. During this time, Mary Anne continued her artistic passion and need for personal expression by taking local junior college art classes and workshops in a variety of media.

Upon retirement, believing that it’s never to late to learn and grow, Mary Anne’s dream of returning to college to study art was realized when she attended the Northern Illinois University and received a BFA specializing in oil painting.

Currently residing in Pewaukee Wisconsin, Mary Anne continues to enjoy the exploration process inherent in all artistic media, with a focus and fascination in the infinite ways of visual expression intrinsic in print making methods ranging from intaglio and linocut to collograph. This interest in printmaking led her classes at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, work at a local instructor’s studio and finally a newly established home studio with press.

Nature in all it’s forms from the micro to macro view, and man’s personal relationship to it, are recurring themes in her work. In this troubled and stressful world we live in, Mary Anne believes the greatest value of art is that it can be a reminder and source of quiet reflection on the infinite beauty and marvelous complexity of the natural world, thus feeding the soul.