About

Mary Ercoli Walsh

  For many years Mary carried great guilt. She just couldn’t settle on a profession!

She went to school and studied anthropology, fashion design, merchandising as well as fine arts. After graduation she taught art classes, worked for her family’s art gallery and picture framing business, quilted, made mosaic furniture, revamped old furniture for an antiques dealer, as well as created a hand-crafted jewelry business. The jewelry business won out, as she was able to find a sales rep who sold her work to gift shops and artisan galleries throughout New England. Just as this was taking off so was her family. Two little ones made their way into the world and the 12 hour days of jewelry making faded into the sunset.
For anyone who has children, they know that child rearing IS THE MOST CREATIVE PART OF LIFE. But time has marched on and the little cherubs are now out of mom’s home studio and into their own school careers. With her new allotted time, more creative energy than you could shake a stick at, and a good decade of reflection, Mary blasted back into the creative scene -all guns blaring!
Her first celebration of this creative awakening was to challenge herself to a creative 365. For one year, Mary would create a work of art every single day and blog about the experience. You can find her writings at https://becreativemary.wordpress.com/  she accomplished this goal and fell in love with blogging in the process. Connecting with people about art and creativity has been a life changing event. “The 365 was a wonderful way to come out to the world as an artist” says Mary Walsh. “So many people knew I was creative, they knew I was a crafter, but they didn’t fully understand just how much the fine arts meant to me.”      These days you can find Mary passionately painting. Her first focus was on realism through still lives. Currently she is taking print making and abstract intuitive art classes. We look forward to this next chapter.  Now it had been mentioned that Artist Mary Ercoli Walsh couldn’t settle on a profession. This is true. To this day she is home decorating, hand-building pottery, jewelry designing as well as painting and print making. “The older I get, the more comfortable I become in knowing that I’ll never “know” what I’m going to be when I grow up! It is only occurring to me now in my 40’s that I don’t have to choose. I love learning. I love exploring. I love working with my hands and designing things. “As long as I get to use my gifts for those purposes then put down my profession as – All of the above!” So there you have it. Artist Mary Ercoli Walsh. Lover of all things colorful and creative. Not one to stick to any one artistic endeavor for very long – she’s too busy moving on to the next! Come along with her for the ride and see what amazing things she leaves in her creative wake!

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 Artists Note: June 2016

For the past three years I have focused on painting realism. Only in the last 6 months have I made the transition to abstract painting. I have been working using the methods of intuitive art painting.

This is the practice of showing up to your canvas without any preconceived notion and relying heavily on your 5 senses.

Smell: fresh air or incense to continue to stimulate through scent

Sound: Continuously varying music or observing silence purposefully

Sight: exploring color, line and texture

Touch: Closing one’s eyes or blindfolding, mark making and even finger painting to feel the materials

Taste: Let’s just say a lot of coffee!!!

The idea is to make painting a sensual experience. Focusing on your senses makes one incredibly present. When one enters the state of being fully present, one can shed the “thinking” mind and enter the “feeling” state of consciousness. In this state, things just appear on the canvas and you are along for the ride. Some things have very deep significance and other times they’re simply bizarre inner-workings. I have to say the process has been life changing. The not knowing brings a sense of calm and excitement simultaneously. I find myself extremely eager to see what will unfold, but just as content to paint without knowing. It is a journey to incorporate the zen state into my art practice. It really is like gaining access to another world.