"Masaai Girl With Her Headress"

Mary Stiff

E-mail: stiff.mary@dorsey.com

Oil Painting

I didn’t start out as a painter. I started out at age 10 as a singer. Classically trained, performing at various venues in the Twin Cities. But my voice left me and I had to find another outlet for self-expression. About six years ago, I found art, painting. I was, and still am, very surprised as I was, and still am, one of those “can’t draw a straight line” people. And I traveled, the easiest way, cruises, group tours, everything planned and taken care of, never really touching the places where I’ve traveled I took pictures and the people who lived in the places I traveled inadvertently got in my pictures, in the scenery. The pictures were put in albums and collected dust. For about four years, I putzed around, trying to find my voice in art and then I remembered my travel pictures. I started painting from those pictures. There was lots of scenery, some with animals, and then, the people who appeared in my pictures. The people who make their lives in the landscapes I saw as a tourist. I knew I had missed much in those earlier travels, but when I paint a landscape, I’m back there in that particular world. I started with just landscapes, then added animals, and finally, the people. And that’s how the project began. Its focus is the people of a particular place and the landscape around them and just a bit of their story as that is all I know. I’ve just started the project with pictures from a trip to Kenya, Africa. China and Tibet are next. Then, I may add Grand Marais, maybe Florida, and I wish I had taken better pictures in Italy. It’s a project that could fill many years, many travels and will certainly change how I travel, how I see and touch and react to all the other worlds our world contains.

"Masaai Woman"

"Chinese Farmer"

"Elder Masaai Woman"