Mary Stanley Artist's C.V.
Mary Stanley's first career was as an academic (Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.)
I researched, taught and wrote on the fraught concept of citizenship/identity in liberal democracies. Those 20 years are the basis for my art. I have embedded my art practice in public life from the micro of local arts groups to the macro of national and international social justice movements.
Educational Background:
B.A. History University of Rochester
M.A. International Relations, Boston University
PhD. Interdisciplinary Social Science, Syracuse University
Undergraduate/Graduate Coursework Ceramics/Sculpture.
College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University.
Art and Cultural Activism
Background and Preparation Ceramics/Sculpture
Artist's Statement
I am a ceramicist and sculptor.
My artistic work reflects my life project, understanding the formation of identity in democracies and as conscious animals emergent from nature. My first career was as a social scientist; teaching, writing, and researching liberal democracy as a context for shaping human beings. I received fellowships, research support, and grants from Syracuse University, the US Department of Education, and foundations while at Syracuse University to explore the nature and meaning of citizenship and cultural identity. My dissertation on the evolving conceptualization of democratic citizenship won the Syracuse University Doctoral Prize in 1988. Since 2006 I have been an arts activist and after 2010, an artist, receiving local foundation and NYSCA grants for arts programming. I was the co-host and co-producer of the award-winning Women’s Voices Radio broadcast by Syracuse University’s NPR station.
I trained as a sculptor and ceramicist at Syracuse University’s School of Visual and Performing Arts. Professor Margie Hughto was my principal mentor. I began exhibiting my sculptural work in 2015. I have exhibited locally, regionally, and nationally. My multi-figure sculptural installations examine identity, often through the lens of miscegenation, “race mixing.” I employ chimeras, mixed species creatures, curious and beautiful or abominations, to engage the viewer. My installations and sculptures reflect the cultures and places I have explored during global travel. I live and work in Syracuse, NY. My work suggests that human identity is best explored by considering the relationship of humans to the natural world and by engaging diverse cultural understandings of human nature.
Mary Stanley and Louise Werner: Traveling Sisters Art
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They work together producing distinctive jewelry and paintings influenced by their travels. Their paintings featured birds and fish, those intrepid travelers. They pursued training in the arts and have taken art workshops and courses throughout their lives in graphics, painting, jewelry-making and ceramics.
They had day jobs; Louise as psychotherapist and Mary as university professor but always managed to make art and travel. They have shared their art in galleries and shows throughout CNY. Though often squabbling sisters, they're great traveling sisters.
Their jewelry, ceramics, photography and paintings been influenced by the diverse cultures of the world.
Europe, Africa, Asia, South and North America, even airport stops in Dubai and Hong Kong have permanently marked them and their art, celebrating diverse cultures in art, religion, food, clothing, ways of thinking. They travel close to the lives of people. Seldom tourists, they try to experience people's worlds as they live them. Jingling, jarring, wondrous but also difficult worlds.
Decades of travel have inspired their scribbles, content and designs. Each piece tells a story. Like the traveling sister if you're lucky enough to travel, try to get lost.
Group Exhibitions
Awards
New Haven Paint and Clay Club, 120th Annual Juried Exhibition. New Haven Community Foundation
Award. Spring 2021.
Second Place, “Eye of the Beholder”, Cultural Center of Cap Cod. International, Summer 2021.
Featured Artist, National Women’s Caucus on the Arts, January 2022.
