By Bex Kane
Northside News
Mary Westring, a local artist in multiple media, held an open studio event at her home and studio on June 21 and 22. I was able to attend and speak with Mary. She told me she came to Madison relatively recently, having moved from Brooklyn last January, to be near family after suffering a stroke. However, she was raised in Wisconsin, and graduated from Oconomowoc High School in 1958.
Mary has been in the arts, as she says, all her life, having begun to formally work as an artist as a young adult. She works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing and sculpting, as well as her formal training in etching-based printmaking.
This process is fascinating and requires significant specialized equipment. Using acid and a selectively removed protective coating, the artist creates a desired pattern on a metal plate, which can then be used to print the image onto paper, canvas or another preferred medium.
The Westring studio is housed in a garage built by Westring’s daughter-in-law. It is outfitted with equipment for work in all of the various media and styles in which Mary works, and is decorated with her own works. Paints and brushes cover the shelves hung on each wall. More specialized equipment, including the press she uses to print her etchings, is spread through the rest of the space. She showed me one of her etched plates — a beautiful image of a stone staircase — and gave me a print produced from it.
Mary’s versatility in media and technique is mirrored in her content. Her work covers a broad range of emotions and topics, with depictions of subway commuters and Grand Canyon tourists displayed alongside impressions of tragedy, including the bombing of Hiroshima and the 9/11 attacks. The experience of being in her studio was enhanced by the breadth of her work.
In addition to her general work and presence in the local community as an artist, Mary has expressed an interest in taking on students from the area. In particular, she said she hopes to pass on her education and training in etching and printmaking. More information can be found on Mary’s website at mary
westring.com.
