ARTIST Information

 

Mary A. Ritter

maryritter45@gmail.com

To me it’s simple

I never think of myself as an artist, a maker, or a marketer.  First, sparked by a scene,  a travel experience, or perhaps a photograph, a story is ready to be told, and I become a storyteller.  I research techniques that will convey the visual message and I do the work.  I hope the work will draw the viewer to it, telling a story or evoking an emotion.

The world of my childhood and youth

provides an unlimited supply of nostalgic images.  Growing up with a large family in rural Minnesota, playing on our farm and in the woods surrounding it with only siblings as my playmates, having a pony to ride and share, attending a one room country schoolhouse and a white country church with a tall steeple ~ these mental images challenge me to record them, and I’ve chosen textiles and threads as my medium.

In our current world, sometimes filled with anxiety and crises

I enjoy retreating to The Loft Studio to quietly put needle and thread to fabric to create art.  My textile art will tell you a story, help you remember adventures from your youth, or perhaps recreate a scene stored in your memory banks.  It might take you on a trip around our country or throughout the world.

Working with fabric and thread

was something that entered my life at an early age.  My mother taught her daughters to embroider and to sew as a utilitarian skill she felt we would need in order to provide for our own families.  For dozens of years I followed that mode, making clothing and useful objects for my home.  In retirement,   I can turn to telling my life stories using the same skills.  Utilitarian or art:  Fabric, color, texture, expression …. these elements have always been a part of my life.

Biography

Mary Ritter has been involved with artistic expression for less than ten years. She started her interest in fabrics and sewing as a young girl, learning from her mother who made much of the clothing her four daughters and sons wore.  While stationed with her husband in Hawaii in the 1970s, Mary practiced Hawaiian quilting and made a queen-size quilt designed from the White Ginger flower.  Her interest in working with fabrics and thread was renewed, but she would not pick up and needle and thread again until shortly before she retired in the early 2000s.  The Loft Studio, located in her home in Cary, is where she experiments with embellishments, fibers and design, creating quilted stories from her memoirs, travels and her husband’s photography.

Mary was born in rural Minnesota and grew up on a farm.  After completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, she and her husband moved around the western United States with US Air Force and US Government assignments.  In addition to Minnesota where they both were born, they have lived in Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, Kansas, Hawaii, California and Utah before retiring to North Carolina.  She completed her Masters of Arts Degree in Education with emphasis on Reading and Literature at California State University, Sacramento.  During these studies, her interest in story telling was piqued.  Later in her career, she participated in NASA Classroom of the Future (technology emphasis) Fellowship and a Library of Congress American Memories Fellowship (using technology to teach emphasis).  The lesson she developed continues to be published on the Library of Congress web site as well as being used as an example on the New York State curriculum resources page – NY Learns. She has taught in elementary and middle school classrooms, as well as in adult education for teacher training.  The final years of her career she managed the technology at three schools and advanced the transition to technology for teachers.

Organizations

Studio Art Quilts Association  http://www.saqa.com

Professional Art Quilters Alliance – South (PAQA)  http://paqa-south.org

Fine Arts League-Cary  https://www.fineartsleagueofcary.org

Carolina Preserve Art Group

Carolina Preserve Go To Pot

Awards

• Durham Orange Quilt Show 2014, Durham, NC; (judged) 1st Place- Farm Home: Where My Story Began, Original Pictorial Design; 3rd Place Fall Frenzy: Look Out Below! Original Design- Nature; Honorable Mention- Look, Mom! -Original Design-Wall 
• Modern Innovative North Carolina Quilt Symposium 2013, Fayetteville, NC; 1st Place, Group Quilts – Mountain to Sea Quilt Series (14 panels / 14 artists); Moses Cone:  Flat Top Manor
• Durham Orange Quilt Show 2012, Durham, NC; Best of Show 2012 – Mountain to Sea Quilt Series (14 panels/14 artists) Moses Cone: Flat Top Manor; 1st Place, Original – Tropical Ocean Sunset; Honorable Mention – Sweet Tropical Sunshine

Exhibitions:

• Fine Arts League-Cary: (member show) November 2021-January 2022 current; Carolina Springtime
• Celebrate Cary (solo show): June 2021; Moving Forward, Around Cary Town, The Reader
• SAQA Benefit Auction (donation): online bidding ~ September-November 2021; 12″x12″; Campus Retreat  – (sold)
• SAQA Spotlight Auction (donation) – 2021: Proudly She Waves 7″x10″
• Sacred Threads Quilts: juried; traveling 2020-current; Backyard Escape; Your World and Kauai Aloha; 
• SAQA Regional-Florida: Fresh Fish; donation; 2020-10; Fishy1 and Fishy2; Published as “Fresh Fish” 
• Sacred Threads Quilts; juried; traveling 2019-2021; Le Chêne Chappelle (The Oak Chapel) 36″x38″
• SAQA VA/NC Region: juried; May 2021; McClean Textile Gallery, McClean, Virginia, Imagination: Topsy Turvy 12’x48’- (sold)
• SAQA Benefit Auction (donation): online bidding ~ September-November 2020; 12″x12″; Together – (sold)
• A Better World Project: juried and web-based; June 2019; The Reader 24″x50″
• SAQA Benefit Auction (donation): online bidding ~ September-November 2019; 12″x12″;  Sweet Nectar– (sold)
• PAQA-South: Page Walker Art and History Center, Cary, North Carolina: March-May, 2019; ArtQuilts-Dreams, juried, Prairie Roots. 18″w x 40″h
• Emerald Art Center, Springfield, Oregon: March 2019: Fissures, juried; El Tajo Gorge, Spain. 24″w x 34″h
• Page-Walker Art and History Center, Cary, NC: August 2018: Fabricated Structures – 16 of my pieces were exhibited in this Artist Trio Show.
• Cape Fear Gallery, Fayetteville, NC, October 2018: Moments in Time: Celebration in the City; Moses Cone Manor
• Woman Made Gallery, Chicago Illinois, October 2018: Quilt + Resist, juried: 36″w x 38″h:  Quality Time (sold)
• PAQA-South: ArtQuilts-Passion, juried, May – July  2018; 36″w x 38″h:  Freedoms4!
• PAQA-South: ArtQuilts-Respite, juried: May – July 2017; 32″ w x 35″ h:  Calle de Cadiz – Tea Time
• SAQA Benefit Auction (donation): bidding September 16-November 6, 2016; 12″x12″; Prairie Breezes – (sold)
• PAQA-South: ArtQuilt-Voices, juried: May 20 – July 2, 2016; 32.5″ wide x 29.5″ high:  Voices Intermingled – (sold)
• 2nd Arts & Flowers Juried Competition, The Arts Council – Fayetteville, NC; May 2016; 27″w x 46″h;   Hydrangea
• PAQA-South: ArtQuilts-Reminisce, juried: April 22 – June 21, 2015  Page Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, North Carolina; Solitude: Snow in Winter and Church on Sunday; 32″w x 35h
• SAQA Benefit Auction (donation): bidding September 16-November 6, 2015; 12″x12″; a la Gaudi (sold)
• PAQA-South: ArtQuilt-Connections, juried: Oct 22 – Nov 16, 2014 Page Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, North Carolina; Great Lake! Windy City! So Big!  27″w x 29″ h
• SAQA Benefit Auction (donation): bidding September 16-November 6, 2014; 12″x12″; Sizzling Summer (Sold)
• SAQA Trunk Show (traveling): 2014-2017; 7″x 10″; Aloha! (Sold)
• PAQA-South: Art Quilt-Whimsy, juried: Apr 23 – June 22, 2014 Page Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, North Carolina; Look Mom! 25″w x 20″h 
• Smoky Mountain Quilt Show  2014 – Fall Frenzy:  Look Out Below! 23″w x 26″h
• Smoky Mountain Quilt Show  2014 – Farm Home: Where My Story Began; 46″w x 40h”
• The Quilt Fest of New JerseyX-March 2014; invitational; Mountain to Sea Quilt Series (14 panels / 14 artists) Moses Cone: Flat Top Manor; 17″w x 26″h
• Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival 2014; Mountain to Sea Quilt Series (14 panels / 14 artists) Moses Cone: Flat Top Manor; 17″w x 26″h
• Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival 2014- Farm Home: Where My Story Began
• PAQA-South: ArtQuilt-freeze frame, juried; September 2013; Moses Cone: Flat Top Manor