Mary Walker has been a painter and printmaker for many years. She taught high school math which she enjoyed, then decided to turn to art full time. Walker was born in New York and grew up in North Carolina. She started painting in 1975, while living in New York and studied at the Art Students' League with Isaac Soyer. After moving to Charleston, she continued to study painting and printmaking for several years at the College of Charleston.  She often travels to Italy to work and vacation.

2015 brought a solo show and a printing residency in Limerick, Ireland.  In 2014 Walker created "The Suitcase" a traveling show of various artists all inside an old red suitcase.  2009  provided two solo shows for Walker, one in Charleston and a summer exhibition at the Arts Council of York County.  She accepted a Margo-Gelb Dune Shack residency in Massachusetts in 2007 and was the 2006 winner of the Griffith Lowcountry Artist's Award.  The award resulted in a solo show at City Gallery Waterfront in Charleston which then led to her being chosen as the poster artist for the Piccolo Spoleto program “Opera is for Everyone.”  She has received several grants from the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant Program.  In 2004 she organized “The Scrolls,” an anti-war project involving both national and international artists that has been exhibited in Charleston, Cincinnati and Washington, DC. As a narrative painter and printmaker, her main interest is with the figure or that of birds, horses and cats.

Mary Walker’s works might be described as whimsy based in realism, objective subjects with imaginative twists.  Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky often come to mind when viewing her creations.  Matthew S. Carlos speaks of Walker’s work as blending abstraction formal structure with exploration of the imagination resulting in an original style with strong subconscious familiarity that engages both the intellect and the psyche.

Walker’s images are narrative, but not realistic, figurative, but not photographic. She is interested in trying to tell a story, or translate a theme, story or poem into paint or collage.  She is drawn to the age-old stories - Greek myths, opera stories, and Shakespeare.

Her work was selected for the Medical University of South Carolina's contemporary collection for the 2008 Ashley River Tower.  She was the featured artist in the March 2009 issue of Charleston Magazine.

Artist Statement

I have been asked about the characters in my paintings. The Bosch character is one of my favorites. I have two Pinocchio's, Kristi's egg scale has become a character. I've often used petroglyphs from New Mexico and have interspersed them with sculptures from the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and now I can't distinguish the source. Some, many come from the work itself. They appear and I change them and then they become regulars. Some come from trying to portray an idea or a character in a narrative. I distill them until they suit. None can be too visually complicated. I simplify and simplify until they become icons.

I like pretty birds, but I am not interested in using them. Crows and grackles are great because they have such big simple shapes, same for vultures. Vultures are a powerful symbol. Trees are powerful. I have no use for the green foliage. I'm interested in seeing their structure, their strength. They can be very expressive.

Cats and dogs often enter my paintings. Dogs tend to have a softening effect, add an innocent feeling. Cats can be more ominous or critics watching the scene. Both are curious and watchful.

Grids I often use to find or re-establish my structure. I was an algebra teacher so I've always loved the idea of the x and y coordinates. Once I've put the grid in, I can hang or place elements, scenes on it. Later I can eliminate some of the grid to set up different spatial areas of the painting. I have been encouraged to break this frontal plane, but I keep coming back to it. There is no renaissance space in my paintings.

In the past, I would always start with a narrative and struggle to express it in a clear truthful way. I still do this, but am now leaving things more and more to chance. I spend most of the process floundering and asking myself if this is a decent way to proceed, but it does eventually lead to surprising results. This is a very uncomfortable way of working, but I find I am drawn to it more and more.