Mary K. Shisler Biography
Rural Wisconsin gave Mary her love of nature and gardening. She received an M.F. A. in Costume Design from the University of Wisconsin- Madison where she began to photograph her costumes, and realized she loved photography.
Mary began working in the alternative processes and achieved success with her images of farms, family and woodlands. She had shows in New York, Minneapolis, MN, and across the country. Working with negative gum prints from old family tintypes, she won the Third Ward Window Installation prize with a large installation in a costume rental shop. She received a grant from the Women’s Art Registry in Minnesota to work with Sam Taylor. (Minneapolis).
From there she went to the San Diego area and then to Toronto(Canada), where she began her series of stainless steel plates. which allowed her to extend her images horizontally across plates of steel. Developing her own technique to work with Van Dyke prints and cyanotypes, Mary’s work was shown at the Ryerson Gallery in Toronto, (Dendritic Plates). She continued this work after she moved to the Bay area of California.
Mary began teaching at the Kala Art Institute which proved to be a welcoming place for her unusual work. She also taught black and white photography at the San Francisco Photo Center and was an adjunct at Ohlone College.
The digital revolution presented for her process. Inspired by Anna Atkins (accredited with the first book illustrated with photographic images, British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions), Mary’s work evolved from the natural to the naturally composed, where she arranged her subjects in specific manners from which she was able to develop the prints on exhibition here.
Rural Wisconsin gave Mary her love of nature and gardening. She received an M.F. A. in Costume Design from the University of Wisconsin- Madison where she began to photograph her costumes, and realized she loved photography.
Mary began working in the alternative processes and achieved success with her images of farms, family and woodlands. She had shows in New York, Minneapolis, MN, and across the country. Working with negative gum prints from old family tintypes, she won the Third Ward Window Installation prize with a large installation in a costume rental shop. She received a grant from the Women’s Art Registry in Minnesota to work with Sam Taylor. (Minneapolis).
From there she went to the San Diego area and then to Toronto(Canada), where she began her series of stainless steel plates. which allowed her to extend her images horizontally across plates of steel. Developing her own technique to work with Van Dyke prints and cyanotypes, Mary’s work was shown at the Ryerson Gallery in Toronto, (Dendritic Plates). She continued this work after she moved to the Bay area of California.
Mary began teaching at the Kala Art Institute which proved to be a welcoming place for her unusual work. She also taught black and white photography at the San Francisco Photo Center and was an adjunct at Ohlone College.
The digital revolution presented for her process. Inspired by Anna Atkins (accredited with the first book illustrated with photographic images, British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions), Mary’s work evolved from the natural to the naturally composed, where she arranged her subjects in specific manners from which she was able to develop the prints on exhibition here.