Mary Reilly Mathews, LCSWR is a playful printmaker who revels in the spontaneity and unanticipated surprises printmaking techniques offer.

Mary is interested in creating images that capture energy and symbolic interface between the natural world and the unseen forces and intelligence behind it. Surrendering to spontaneity and surprise, intuition and mystery, is what motivates Mary’s time in the studio.

When creating etching plates, collagraph plates, monoprints, etc. she aims to be more spontaneous than precise. Her hand-pulled images are made with water-based oil inks or Akua Inks.

 Mary considers her experimental printmaking practice serious play! She makes prints to listen to herself. “The printmaking process allows me to slow down, drop out of my verbal mind, and enter a meditative relationship with internal, intuitive knowing.”

 Mary has long been interested in the intersection of various Wisdom traditions, the evolution of consciousness, and psycho-spiritual health.  As a psychotherapist for 25+ years she was sought out because of her certifications in transformational techniques that access the power of the imaginal realm. (The Dream Interviewing Method, SoulCollage, and Interactive Guided Imagery.)   She continues to draw on her dreams and SoulCollage for inspiration. She finds that she increasingly ponders her connection to her ancestors, the natural world, and the history of human beings as creators and seekers. 

 Mary hopes to create images that move people to experience curiosity and a sense of mystery. “You are more than you think you are, and something in you knows it!”  

Mary has published two books celebrating the power of creativity:

• The Creativity & Camaraderie Club: have more fun, live more wholeheartedly, encourage each other

Her own Creativity & Camaraderie group met faithfully every month for nine years (even during blizzards in Utica, NY!)

•  Old Sayings, Modern Wisdom: a picture book for young and old.    

This picture book was created as the final project for her six-month mentorship at Zea Mays Printmaking Studio.  The mentorship focused on introducing Mary to a variety of  printmaking techniques under the guidance of her mentor, Lynn Peterfreund.