Hamilton grew up in southern Clarion County and graduated from Union-Rimersburg High School.

Even before finishing school, she was ready for the bright lights of the big city.

“I wanted to go to school at UCLA or Carnegie Mellon, but my mom said that was not happening,” Hamilton said. “She did make me a deal though. She said if I did well while getting my bachelor’s, I could go anywhere for my master’s.”

Mary held up her end of the deal, working hard and doing well before graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and then her mom followed through on hers, which led to Mary studying art at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy, and Philadelphia.

“When I told my mom I was going to Rome, she was pretty surprised.”

But, off Mary went and it her changed her life forever.

“That made all the difference,” Mary said. “In Italy, art means a great deal to people, much more than people here.”

Mary studied printmaking in graduate school in Rome and concentrated on the art of etching. When she returned to Philadelphia to finish her studies, she grew sad to think of soon being out of school without access to the necessary press required for etching.

However, as the old saying goes: “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

“I was taking a drawing class and decided as a final project to do a drawing and make a print of it using the traditional linoleum block printing process of one separate block for each color. I presented my drawing for the proposed print to my teacher and he asked me if I knew of the method used by Picasso in which one block was cut away and printed in successively darker colors,” Mary said.

“He went on to explain that the process is a little difficult in that there is no room for error as once the block is cut away for the next color one cannot go back to correct anything.”

“Also, that the number of prints you start out printing are all you will have and probably not all of those will be “keepers”.

“Intrigued, I planned my print and designed an image of a lion in a forest. From the very beginning, I loved the process. Forty years later I am still entranced. I like the mindfulness required in the carving and printing of reduction prints.

“I have loved printmaking from the very first time I tried it,” Mary said. “The process not only involves drawing but also the craft of creating the printing plate and the opportunity to work with colors. I like the idea of multiple images. I can always keep one and still have some to sell!”

“I might add that when I pulled the final color of that very first print two of my fellow students asked if they could buy one!!”

Mary returned home and taught art in the Clarion Area School District for about two-and-one-half years before taking a leave of absence and returning to the classroom for a semester back in Philadelphia.

She met her husband-to-be, Bob Hamilton, who was also an artist, hailing from Montreal, Quebec.

“He had art in shows and galleries in Philly and suggested I put some of my work in them, too, and they sold!” Hamilton said. “I was encouraged by the interest and in the sales. This was a whole new direction for me and one I had never even contemplated. Although I enjoyed teaching I now knew I had to try to become a full-time artist,” Mary said.

“So, we traveled to shows all over and then started looking for a home. We looked in New York and around Philadelphia. We were still looking when we came back to Rimersburg one Thanksgiving and we called the realtor and found this place,” Mary said, referring to Skyflower Farm.

“When we went to the property, the owner told us ‘hippies’ to get off his land,” Mary said with a laugh.

But the old man’s tone changed when the Hamiltons told him they were thinking of buying the property.

“The name Skyflower Studio comes from an experience I had when first moving to this farm. When driving up the long hill approaching the house, I saw a field of flowers which seemed to touch the sky. My display studio is in a converted, old, one-room schoolhouse and my printing studio is in the style of a small Japanese country house,” Mary said.

As Mary put it, the old schoolhouse was a “wreck.”

It needed a lot of work, but today it features front and back doors that were originally located in the Clarion County Courthouse.

“When the doors were being replaced in the courthouse, we picked them for about $10.00 each in an auction,” Mary said.

Mary’s marriage ended after 16 years, but she has remained a working artist, creating her rare and original works at Skyflower.

She has done many large art festivals and continues to do so as well as showing her work in galleries and in her home studio. Her work is in public and private collections pretty much all over the world.

“I have always remembered what an art history teacher once told my class. The art that any artist produces, if it is true, should reflect the uniqueness of the maker. My work has always been a mirror of my interests and the things I love. I view the act of making art as a magical.

“A picture can open up worlds and take you somewhere you did not expect to go. Some of my influences were and are my dogs, past and present; cats who guard the studio space, and other animal friends; the music and culture of India, Celtic lore and design, oriental rugs and the worlds of myth.”

Mary’s current companion is a six-month-old Belgium sheepdog named DaVinci.

Mary currently is showing her work at IUP in John Sutton Hall and planning for upcoming shows at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in State College in July and “A Fair in the Park” in Pittsburgh in September.

“I am so grateful for the support of friends, family, and all those who have bought my work. They have made it possible to make what seemed an impossible dream a reality,” Mary said. “Making a living in art is not easy. There’s not a whole lot of security, but it has made me a whole lot more self-reliant.”

“I pay off my credit card bills every month, and I use the points from that to fly when I can,” Mary said.

Living at Skyflower hasn’t made Mary any more creative, but she said it has made it easier for her to budget her time.

Mary’s vibrantly colorful linocut prints are not reproductions. They are hand-printed originals from a single block of linoleum by the process of reduction. She carves and prints the blocks herself in small edition sizes of 60 or fewer. The reduction process guarantees that no more will ever be made of that image.

“After a color is printed, that part of the block is cut away; the next darker ink is applied and printed, then the block is carved again until all that is left on the block is the area of the final color,” Mary said.

She cannot go back to change colors or to make more prints.

Mary also does design work for posters, cards, and book illustration.

She recently made a sculpture in the Brick Works Kilns in Climax, Armstrong County, through an arrangement with IUP.

“I very much love to travel and have been inspired by my time in Italy. I am enchanted by the art and culture of India and Nepal.

To see more of Mary’s work, go to skyflowerart.com, www.mainexhibitgallery.com/mary-hamilton.html or www.pinterest.com/champanier/artist-mary-hamilton/.