Mary Ahern

Lifelong Learning: A Personal Journey

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Mary AhernOctober 27, 2024

Screenshot of one of the online Seth Godin & Bernadette Jiwa Akimbo courses I took with other students around the world. It’s a great way to meet others interested in the same things as you.

I’m in my 70s and very excited since I’m back at school and taking a new class. We are so lucky now that there are many ways to continue learning. We can take classes in traditional in-person settings, take online workshops, or pursue a hybrid balance. What a gift!

My pursuit of knowledge has always been eclectic. I study what I want, when I want or need it, to enhance the projects I’m working on. Not one to seek the traditional BA, MA, or PhD stepping stones, I followed the song made famous by Frank Sinatra, I did it “My Way.”

One of the constants in my life is that I’m always studying something. A deep and wide curiosity leads me to focus on personal growth and practical knowledge — from Maharishi to computer programming and everything in between.

Many online classes over the years have allowed me to study subjects like digital painting, oils, watercolor, illustration, and abstraction. These online classes let me experiment quickly with various mediums and styles to see if they are something I might want to study more deeply. I remember taking an online workshop with an artist and then flying from NY to Baton Rouge to study in his in-person workshops. This would never have happened had I not met him and his work online. Both the online and in-person types of study are unique experiences in their way, and at times, one leads to the other.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Originally published in Sanctuary Magazine.

Awakenings in the Garden: An Artist’s Journey

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Mary AhernSeptember 30, 2024

My garden has been the inspiration behind my art for decades but formally studying horticulture introduced me to an entirely new understanding of the garden. Studying the science behind this living environment at my doorstep, was and continues to be a source of endless investigation. Not just in the beauty a garden can project, but in the sustainability, the interaction, and reliability of the vast array of life forms involved in creating a mutually dependent whole. Because of this deep study of my garden, my art has changed. As I’ve grown in an awareness of the complexity of the garden that I’ve designed and tended for over 35 years, my art has changed too by becoming more expressive, less realistic, and more multilayered.

I first became aware of how I was being transformed, not just by having more technical knowledge through my studies in horticulture when one day, standing in my garden, my clothes and hands covered in dirt, scratched and bug bitten, a wave of quiet contentment entered my very being. Yes, I was exhausted, and my body was aching from the hours of hard physical labor, but something different was flowing through my mind. It was a sense of awakening. I felt it but I was not able to articulate clearly what I felt. I still don’t have the words completely to express this transformation. So, I have been trying to do so through my art.

Mary in Her Studio Working on Phaelanopsis Orchid (December 2020)

Working in my studio on the Phaelanopsis Orchid (December 2020)

Spending years since then of work both in my mind and physically, I have dug deeper into the metaphor the garden has represented to me about all living beings. It has taught me that in order to survive, the building of communities is needed to create a harmonic, healthy balance. The garden speaks to me of survival. I watch hummingbirds, with their long beaks, attracted to the long tubular flowers of the Salvias. I smell the late day fragrance of the Brugmansia as it seduces night pollinators less exhausted from a day’s work to help the lifecycle. Each insect, each flower, each fungus is only trying to survive for another season, another year, another generation. We as humans, like the complexities found in the garden are also trying to survive and hopefully prosper.

In my studio, my large, centrally focused flower paintings have been inspired by the imagery I saw through the microscopes used during my scientific studies in horticulture. The bold colors and large sized paintings were my way of grabbing the attention of the viewer just as the stunning presentation of a bold peony blossom calls out for attention.

Phaelanopsis Orchid (A Work in Progress, December 2020)
© Mary Ahern

Over time the education I am receiving from the garden has been changing me. My artwork reflects my deepening thoughts, abstract concepts, and my openness to explore new ideas and deeper theories of the world surrounding us.

During Covid, another revelation presented itself to me. I began to look at the imagery posted online by NASA showing us the galaxy of which we are but a small part. I realized that the entire universe also depended upon that harmony and balance all of us, the garden included, must have in order to exist. This awareness of the delicacy of both the microcosm and the macrocosm of our worlds is what I am now trying to express in my artwork. Blending abstractions inspired by the cosmos transparently through the realistic flowers grown in my garden informs the current work in my studio.

The awareness of the multi-layered reliance on other forces to help in survival is humbling. This new awareness has deepened my gratitude. This is what I am now attempting to create in my studio.

Cosmic Phaelanopsis on Oil ~ 24 x 24 inches. Deep Cradled Hardboard

Cosmic Phaelanopsis
Oil ~ 24 x 24 inches. Deep Cradled Hardboard. Available on the website here.
© Mary Ahern

Note: “Cosmic Phaelanopsis” is the final work after I put the piece aside for two years due to being dissatisfied with its direction. The final “Cosmic Phaelanopsis” is an example of the new direction my work has taken.

Partial Artist Statement:
This artwork sparks a vital conversation reflecting the interconnectedness and balance within the microcosm of my garden and the macrocosm of the cosmos. My work draws inspiration from the life cycle of flowers to explore existential questions about existence, purpose, fragility, and interconnectedness.

Originally published in Sanctuary Magazine. July 2024 and in my Art Blog here

Women Helping Women: A Recipe for Success -Art Blog

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Mary AhernAugust 31, 2024

There were women who stepped into my life’s journey that changed the course of my life at critical junctures that I only realized in hindsight. I was raised in a very conventional household by strict European parents with very defined roles. By twenty years of age, I’d come to the pinnacle of my success with my prince charming of a hubby, a baby, and our own home. What a relief! I had it all. The American dream. Contentment personified.

Mary (L) and Roberta ~ 1977 Photo Courtesy: Mary Ahern

Until my beloved hubby rocked our little world by wanting out of our paradise. I had no life preparation beyond anything except the happy home, two sons, a dog, and a white picket fence. I didn’t know any woman who worked, let alone was raising their children by herself. I honestly imagined my sons, and I would starve to death without a man to work and earn the money to use in the supermarket. The windows in our home became a prison to me, keeping us silently and painfully apart from the world. My dark hopelessness led me on frightening trails of despair and death.

The emergency slowly passed. Life settled down a bit. But I was changed forever. I knew I needed to control the outcome of life for my sons and me. Then, I met Roberta at the YMCA Swim and Gym classes for our three-year-olds. She was a biology professor at Queen College and showed me I could get educated. Because of her, I went to college, got my degree in fine arts, and then got my divorce on my terms.

With confidence and a goal, I got a job at Barnard College, the women’s college of Columbia University, a bastion of feminism—an entirely new world of supportive women who opened up a vast world for me. Martha hired me as the office manager since, as she said, any single mother knows how to balance time and tasks. Since classes were free for employees, I studied programming in the School of Engineering, and Martha encouraged me to get into the then nascent field of computers. She also said to follow where a company makes its money, so I should go into sales or finance for my career. I took her advice.

Mary’s Office Just After Starting Her Own Business, Online Design (1995)
Photo Courtesy: Mary Ahern

Mary Ann had a Datsun 280 sports car, wore gold jewelry, and owned expensive houses. She showed me women on their own can be wealthy. I determined that if I couldn’t be home at 3 o’clock with the milk and cookies, I would make the most money I possibly could. She showed me it was possible.

I went into the sales field in the male-dominated computer graphics industry since there I would earn money based upon my own efforts while combining my art, graphics, and computer backgrounds. And I did. Until I hit my head on the glass ceiling. So, I started my own graphic design/marketing business.

As an entrepreneur, I controlled how I used my time, benefited financially from my own skills and efforts, chose the types of work that intrigued me and created and designed my own lifestyle.

And now is my time in my journey; I get to pay it forward. Using the models, the women before so wisely gave me, I am able to generously offer my experience to other women. Being an active member of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), I am in a position to share my business experience in sales and marketing with many other women to help them move along in their own journeys. Like having a delicious piece of apple pie with a scoop of ice cream and a cherry on top at the end of an exquisite meal, I’m finally having my dessert.

NAWA has been empowering women artists for 135 years as the first women’s professional art organization founded in the US. Like the women who helped me in my life’s journey, I’m comforted by knowing I’m also helping other women in theirs. As Isaac Newton said: “…if I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

My life is filled with gratitude for what I have experienced and learned throughout my life, and that I now have an opportunity to share with other women in my community of professional women artists. Life is sweet!

National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) 2023 New Member Induction Ceremony
Mary (Bottom Row, 4th from Right)
Photo Courtesy: Mary Ahern. Chair of Public Relations Committee

Originally published in Sanctuary Magazine March 2024

Art Blog Post: A Virtual Visitor Had Me Contemplating My Lifelong Career in the Arts

Posted on August 19, 2024 by Mary AhernAugust 19, 2024

Photo of Judy Chicago by Donald Woodman

A Virtual Visitor Had Me Contemplating My Lifelong Career in the Arts

To read this on the Art Blog click here!

https://www.maryahernartist.com/art-blog/virtual-visitor/

A short while ago I had a virtual visitor enter my studio while I was standing at my easel working on an oil painting. The visitor was Judy Chicago who was interviewed for the 60-year retrospective of her work at the New Museum in New York. Out of the corner of my eye, as I continued to paint, I watched and listened to the live-streaming event for the exhibition “Herstory” (here’s the YouTube Video of the event) which was the first comprehensive museum survey of her work. Judy Chicago was born in 1939 and as I listened to this interview it was 2023. Eighty-four years is a long, long time to wait to have this type of recognition.

This juxtaposition of Judy being live-streamed into my studio as I painted was profound for me since Judy’s work and those of many other women artists whom I was fortunate enough to be made aware of during the 1970’s when I was majoring in art in college, are why I’m still creating my work. These women artists weren’t in my textbooks. They were instead presented to me by some of the women art historians and women professors I studied with when I was lucky enough to attend classes at the then, tuition-free, City University of NY. All these women changed my life. The women artists were showing a new way of working and the professors were exposing us to a reevaluation of the art historical canon.

Mary Ahern Painting “Passion – Red Dahlia” Oil on Canvas 30×30″

I first saw Judy’s work in 1979 as thousands of us made a pilgrimage to the Brooklyn Museum of Art to view The Dinner Party. This groundbreaking installation was created with Judy’s vision and also the efforts of hundreds of women offering their skills in various mediums. This work helped to introduce fabrics, embroidery, stitching, ceramics and various other techniques which had been ungraciously removed from the category of “Fine Art” by those who were in charge of writing the history of art. These creative skills were those exercised primarily by women and now were finally being presented in museums.

We stood for what seemed like hours, quietly waiting for our turn to enter the site-specific art in the room which housed the installation. Most of us on the long line had dressed in better than everyday wear for the occasion. When we finally reached the doorway, we found the room lights were dimmed. We entered as if entering a house of worship. Voices were hushed. Many folded their hands as if in prayer. It was the closest I’d come to a sacred event outside of an actual house of worship. We all knew this was a pivotal point in our lives. Our eyes and minds were to be opened to entirely new languages, visuals and histories that we’d never encountered before in the mainstream art world. Upon emerging from this immersive experience, we were elated, buoyant, excited beyond imagination by the possibilities we’d just been introduced to. We were sure that now everything would be different. We knew it had to be.

Upon reading Judy’s recent book, The Flowering: The Autobiography of Judy Chicago”, I learned how hard a life she had bringing her visions to fruition and acceptance. She and her work were torn apart, reviled, and denigrated by the conventional art world. The press denounced her vision and the work of the women artists who contributed their skills. Reading about her hard-fought lifetime of bringing her art into the world, reminded me that all of us have obstacles in our lives. They vary from person to person. But to be a creative artist for an entire lifetime takes a certain amount of grit. Success, by whatever measurement we use, takes the ability to keep pushing forward through the hard times. The times your heart is breaking. The times you are having trouble putting food on the table. The times your family is in crisis. The times you feel less than because others feel so much more than.

Because of these feminist artist pioneers, I’m still painting, still creating, still growing. They cleared the path and showed me the way. And as I stood at my easel painting, Judy streamed in to tell me to keep going, there’s no quitting, there’s no calendar, there’s no promise, no destination. I’ll just keep making my art. She still is.

Photo collage by Mary Ahern

Northport Neighbors Magazine Feature Article

Posted on May 20, 2024 by Mary AhernMay 20, 2024

“In Full Bloom” By Debbie Mercer.

Mary Ahern and Dave Ruedeman Find Inspiration in Life – and Each Other. May 2024

Mary and Dave in their garden. Len Marks Photography

Circles figure prominently in the lives of Mary Ahern and David Ruedeman. In her woodland garden and in her paintings, circles represent women. In a romantic example of life coming full circle, the two worked together, lost touch, and found each other again. Their first official date was on wheels – a memorable bike ride in which Mary got a flat and Dave came to her rescue.

But if you ask Mary, she’ll likely tell you it was all more of what she calls a zigzag. You see, these two are masters of the pivot. Throughout the years they’ve continuously reinvented themselves, whether out of a financial need at the time or simply an innate, overwhelming desire to learn new things and break new ground.

Forging a Path

Mary started out on a pretty straightforward course. She was raised in a traditional European upbringing in which her parents didn’t believe girls should get a college education. Mary finished high school, married at 20, and raised two small boys. “I didn’t know any women who were educated,” she recalls. That all changed when she met Roberta Koepfer at the YMCA, a professor at Queens College who inspired her to take some classes. On Wednesday nights, Mary began taking oil painting. She had no background in art but after the fifth class, her teacher told her, “Mary, I can’t teach you anymore. You need more instruction.”

Mary At Home In Her Studio. Photo: Len Marks Photography

Mary put herself through college, earning an art degree from Queens College in 1980. However, divorce followed, and Mary found herself on her own with two small boys to feed. “I had no training, no skills to earn a living,” she says. A quick zigzag led her to work at Columbia University, where she studied computer programming for free, only to take a job where the money was – the burgeoning field of computer sales. She understood the potential, and ended up being part of the team who opened the first computer center in Radio Shack in Valley Stream in the early 80s. More work zigzags later, she ended up at Chyron selling computer graphics to the television and production industry. “You really needed to teach people what these things were capable of,” she says. “I was one of the only women in the industry. My fine art had to take a back seat. But I was doing my art through the equipment I was selling.”

Rediscovering Each Other

Dave on their bike cruise on the Rhine River

The “go-to” guy at Chyron was Dave Ruedeman, who had a degree as an electrical engineer. “That’s where I stumbled on my life’s work,” he says. “I found out I was put on this earth to be a problem solver. I had to finish an abandoned computer design, which was crucial to the survival of Chyron. Delving in new technology and gaining an intimate understanding of how computers work was, for me, life changing.” As the head of engineering, Dave’s team were the ones who were creating the equipment that Mary was selling.

Fast forward about eight years. By then Mary had, as she says, “gotten a concussion on the glass ceiling” and started her own company. “I spoke tech, so all of my clients were smaller engineering firms. I was like an outsource marketing dept. I would get a photographer and shoot the products and then put the logos on digitally. I was consulting and creating brochures.” She took on the internet and taught herself how to design websites. On business trips she would take along her art supplies to relax – and once again reignited her passion. “My art started to seep back into me. And I knew I had to pay attention to it,” she recalls.

As fate would have it, one of her freelance gigs at the time involved writing an operation manual for her old company Chyron. She ran into Dave while there one day and the two caught up. He suggested a bike ride out to Eaton’s Neck, and Mary agreed. It was only when they pedaled out there that Mary discovered Dave too was divorced, and that this was, in fact, a date. Once back at her house, Dave saw her art hanging on the walls and was totally knocked for a loop. “I had no idea what she was about,” he says. “It actually blew me away.”

They tied the knot in 1997. By then Mary’s garden, which she’d begun in 1989, was itself a work of art – so much so that Dave encouraged her to design gardens for others. That led Mary to Farmingdale College where she graduated with a degree in horticulture in 2000 – 20 years after earning her art degree. A turn at the New York Botanical Gardens soon followed, where Mary earned a 2-year certificate in botanical illustration.

Circle entrance to Mary’s woodland garden.

Bike Cruising, Art, and the Garden

Mary working on her Iris painting – part of her one-woman show at the Atelier at Flowerfield

In the meantime, Dave did his own zigzags. He got his master’s in computer science in 1983 and started designing software. About 10 years ago, he took his love of biking up to a whole new level and started doing “centuries” – one hundred mile rides out to Montauk via a scenic route. Longer distances and more intricate trips soon followed. He’s done RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) – twice. “RAGBRAI is a thing of beauty,” he says. It covers 400-500 miles, and the route changes every year.

Riders dip their rear tire in the Missouri River when starting and their front tire in the Mississippi River at the end. For those trips, he joined an outfitter to move his tent, gear, and supplies up the road while he biked. “It’s a great incentive to keep going,” he laughs. “My clothes were fifty plus miles ahead!”

Mary on their bike cruise in the Netherlands

“He’s a more powerful biker,” Mary says. “He’ll ride 50-80 miles a day which isn’t my style. I’ll do 20-mile rides and stay on the bike paths.” Together they have taken bike cruises from Paris to Amsterdam, as well as Portland Oregon along the Columbia River, ending in Idaho. That first trip is truly a favorite memory for the couple. It coincided exactly with their 25th wedding anniversary, when they arrived in Paris and were greeted with champagne, balloons, and hearts on their hotel bed – courtesy of Mary’s daughter-in-law Sherri. “We couldn’t believe it,” Mary laughs. “It was so fabulous.” In another one of life’s sweet moments on that trip, Dave saw the Tour de France from the Champs Elysees, while Mary literally bumped into it later when she exited the Louvre. The two have other biking cruises on the horizon. In June, they’ll be heading down the Danube River, starting in Prague and ending in Budapest.

Mary and Dave at home in their garden.
Photo: Len Marks Photography

Today they’re retired in a non-retirement sort of way. “We don’t call this retirement because we both work intensely,” Mary explains. “But we’re working now at things we enjoy.” Dave does consulting and teaches IT for companies all over the world, including a NATO group earlier this year. In an interesting twist on today’s modern roles, he’s also “tech support” for his grandson – a fact which they clearly love.

Mary’s artwork continues to anchor her. Her solo exhibition “Not Just a Pretty Flower” featuring her large Georgia-O’Keeffe inspired artwork, is on display at the Atelier at Flowerfield through the end of May. It’s a provocative exploration of what she views as the interconnectedness and balance within the microcosm of her garden and the macrocosm of the cosmos. “The paintings are large so that they demand conversation,” she explains. “That’s why I want to do big paintings. So that it’s in your face. Why is she doing this? Why is it like that? What is the message?’ That’s my latest body of work.”

She also volunteers her time as the Public Relations Chair of the National Association of Women Artists which is celebrating its 135th anniversary this year. “I love paying it forward to help empower other women artists to achieve the success they envision for themselves. Feminism, Artists, Empowerment, these are my sweet spots.”

Not bad for two people who reimagined themselves through hard times and ended up on the other side. They’re clearly savoring each moment and drawing inspiration from each other. “Our lives were not easy.” Mary reflects. “We crawled over broken glass to get where we are now. So, every day we look at each other and we laugh and hug because we’re so joyful. We can’t believe how lucky and happy we are.”

Not Just Another Pretty Flower. A Solo Exhibition by the Artist Mary Ahern at The Atelier At Flowerfields

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Mary AhernApril 15, 2024

Embedded With Conversations on Harmony and Balance from the Garden to the Galaxy

The Atelier At Flowerfield is thrilled to announce:

“Not Just Another Pretty Flower³a Mary Ahern Art Show”

April 18 to May 30, 2024,

2 Flowerfield, St. James, NY 11772.

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 18, 2024. 5:30 – 7:30 PM

Meet The Artist: Saturday, April 27, 2024. 1 – 3 PM

Mary Ahern’s art is deeply rooted in symbolism, dynamically reflecting the interconnectedness and delicate balance within both the microcosm of her garden and the macrocosm of the cosmos These artworks spark a vital conversation about these essential issues. Drawing inspiration from the vibrant community of life in her garden, her flowers invite universal questions of existence and purpose in their quest for survival, eventual senescence, and rebirth.

The identifiable floral Images she creates are glazed and intertwined with her abstract underpaintings inspired by the recent awe-inspiring visuals of the universe. By recognizing the delicate balance required for both terrestrial and celestial ecosystems to thrive, she aims to provide a visual context for understanding the essential balance necessary to sustain life’s intricate harmony across all scales – from the tiniest flower to the grandest galaxy.

Employing imagery that balances both abstraction and realism, she is mirroring the delicate equilibrium needed for universal survival. Her extensive use of transparent glazing between the garden and the galaxy exemplifies the need for open discourse, which she believes is necessary to ensure the health and survival of all species.

Ahern’s artistic process involves employing unique techniques that she has continued to refine over the course of 50 years. Through the years of experimentation and refinement, she developed a distinctive approach to painting that reflects her artistic vision and also her philosophy. Through this layered, evocative imagery, she invites viewers to pause, contemplate, and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the fragile yet resilient web of life that sustains our world and cosmos.

The Atelier at Flowerfield shares Ahern’s commitment to promoting appreciation of the arts. As part of its mission, The Atelier strives to preserve beauty through the learning, understanding, creation, and enjoyment of art in all its forms.

Also Visit the website of The Atelier At Flowerfield: www.atelieratflowerfield.org

Mary Ahern Art Exhibition Announcement

Oh Dear, I Now Have Deer

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Mary AhernMarch 21, 2024

I first noticed it in the fall. Something had eaten my hostas. My usual culprits have been the rabbits, but this was well beyond their usual food shopping spree. Perhaps they decided to invite their entire extended family this time. The raccoons ate all the minnows in my new small pond, so they weren’t hungry either. So I decided to install Ring cameras to see who was having a party in my garden while I innocently slept.

And there he was, a huge antlered deer. Oh Dear!

Daytime Deer in my Garden. I don’t know who was more scared, him or me.

The next day, I bought a battery-operated sprayer and researched what would work best to preserve my precious garden. Most of the products not only smelled bad enough to ward off the deer, but they also smelled bad enough to keep me out of the garden as well. I found one brand that also contained some mint, which apparently the deer hate, so that’s the one I settled on. So last fall, after every rainy day, I would head out to spray the perimeter of my garden. This year, I’m upping my game since the buck brought his harem and extended family.

In the front garden this deer ate all my hostas in one sitting. I was wondering if he was going to ask for some salad dressing.

I’m having deer fencing installed in the part of the garden where they most frequently gain entrance in the hopes of diverting their attention. This happened to be on the property line with my new neighbor. Using the markings he had in position from his recent surveying, together we agreed on the exact placement of my upcoming fence. I hung screaming yellow Caution tape to define the property line, which sure disturbs the calming woodland aesthetics I’ve been creating for the last 35 years. The next step was the installation of this one section of fencing, knowing full well that it was only the beginning of preserving my garden sanctuary.

This is the view from my neighbors side of the deer fencing which I had installed on our mutual property line. I sure hope the deer notice it.

You can read more articles about my garden on my dedicated Garden Blog: The Garden Artist.

Trimming Hellebores. My First Gardening Task of the Spring

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Mary AhernFebruary 29, 2024

February Hellebores ready for trimming. Mary Ahern

My Dual Passions – Art and Gardening

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Mary AhernFebruary 5, 2024

At the age of 14, I was alone and lying in the summer grass on a hill in Brooklyn, New York, staring upward through the leaves at the passing clouds while trying to understand why a person I loved dearly had suddenly died. Without an anchor or language to explain the passage, I was at a profound loss and searching for an answer, an explanation. I clearly remember feeling the warm energy from the ground swell up and pass through my body and like a mist, mingle into the leaves and up into the clouds in that deeply blue sky.

At that moment, I recognized that I, as a person, was just another aspect of nature, joined with the wind, the air, the plants, the trees, and all life teeming around me – just another form of energy. This gift has been with me throughout my life and is what I gather in my garden and express in my art.

1985 – Mary Ahern in the Cablevision studio working with the Chameleon electronic paint system.

Mary-painting-the white iris in her studio

Painting in my studio. The white iris blooms in my garden each spring. I glaze with thin washes using a fan brush and thinned paints.

My Zig-Zag Journey
Like most of us, our life journey takes many paths. For me, my twists and turns led me to a career that blended my fine arts training with my technical background.

I Met A Hero of Mine – Audrey Flack

Posted on February 2, 2024 by Mary AhernFebruary 2, 2024

Audrey Flack at the Southampton Arts Center, November 2023 Photo credit: James F Dawson

Audrey Flack is a painter who, when I was in college in the 1970s, inspired me as I began my artistic journey. My art history teacher Patricia Hills at York College, which is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, introduced us to the many women artists who were pushing the envelope at the time. There was Audrey Flack, Joyce Kozloff and Judy Chicago. All of these women are currently Honorary Vice Presidents of the National Association of Women Artists. Since at the moment, I am Chair of the Public Relations Committee of NAWA it is such an honor to be meeting these artists who are still teaching us to keep working, keep pushing, and keep making our own artistic statements.

Recently I went with hubby Dave and my friends Susan Rostan & hubby Bob to the “Heroines of Abstract Expressionism” at the Southampton Arts Center here on Long Island. Audrey had work in the show but so did four other artists who had been members of NAWA, Louise Nevelson, Nell Blaine, Dorothy Dehner, and Buffie Johnson.

Since Susan and I are co-hosting the Historical Research Team at NAWA this was an auspicious occasion for us and opened up new opportunities for research and writing.

2023-11-12-Roz-Dimon-Audrey-Flack-Mary-Ahern-Susan-Rostan4-20x72

NAWA artists: Roz Dimon, Audrey Flack, Mary Ahern, Susan Rostan at the Southampton Arts Center, November 2023 Photo credit: James F Dawson

Then another amazing event happened, Audrey Flack was scheduled for a talk at Southampton two weeks later, so we signed up and took another drive out east. It sure was worth it! Audrey, who is now 92, was there and clear as a bell answered questions about her work and her experiences from the 1950s onward. She was funny, dished gossip, was fully knowledgeable about the era, the people, the art movements and who the players in the industry were at the time. She talked about the Cedar Bar where all the artists gathered, talked & drank after working in their studios all day. She talked about Jackson Pollack, Robert Motherwell, Clement Greenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, and many more artists and gallerists. In the audience, was a who’s who of the Hamptons Art Scene asking the questions and/or thanking her for her many contributions to the arts.

I’m so grateful to still be able to be working as an artist, that I continue to grow, to enjoy and learn from other artists. To have this “brush with greatness” that I experienced by listening to, speaking to and having my photo taken with one of my heroes sparkles brightly in my life’s journey. I thank Pat Hills for opening my eyes and my mind over 50 years ago to pay attention to these women artists who were clearing the path and showing us that we as women artists had voices and something unique to say. And after all these decades, we still have statements to make, wisdom to share, and paths to plow for others to follow.

My Art Starts in the Garden

Author Archives: Mary Ahern