We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mary Ball. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mary below.

Mary, appreciate you joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers?

Right out of Grad school I began working in a shared studio space in a basement in Chinatown. The place was grungy and less than ideal, but I couldn’t afford anything nicer and it was conveniently close to my apartment. One day, I carried a few framed paintings from my apartment to the studio to be professionally photographed. I couldn’t carry them all down the stairs, so I left two leaning against the railing at the top of the steps. I ran into the studio, set some work down and when I came back up to get the others, they were gone. Nowhere to be seen. They were stolen in a matter of seconds. I was devastated and frantically running around the neighborhood searching for the culprits. I even got into a nearby cop car and we circled the blocks looking for someone carrying art. Since the paintings stolen exceeded a certain monetary value, the cops had to file a police report and said they’d launch an investigation. After about 48 hours, I lost hope of everything seeing the work again. One month later, I get a call from the investigator that they’d found my paintings! Someone had turned them in to the police station. My story had somehow been written up in the Chinese newspaper and it reached the right person. These two pieces had been living in an apt of someone who just thought they had scored a great street find. The cops returned the pieces to me and they have both sold since. What began as a terrible situation and hard-learned lesson turned into a wild story with a happy ending.

Mary, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began painting as early as I can remember. It was the only thing that could really hold my focus for hours on end. The pull towards art became stronger as I got older. Art gave me a sense of purpose that I hadn’t found elsewhere.

After focusing intensely on art in high school, I went on an art scholarship to the university of Georgia. Upon graduating, I went straight to NYC to get my MFA in painting at the New York Academy of Art. Those two years in grad school gave me time to focus solely on my practice and hone my skills. It wasn’t as much the education, but the uninhibited time in the studio, that was crucial to finding my voice as an artist.

I am always trying to grow as an artist. I equate my job to an archeologist- I’m always digging under the surface to find new shiny things, stories, meanings, and truths. I paint because I love it but also because it feels necessary to my being. As a client, you can be sure that no two pieces are alike. Every piece is spontaneous and intuitively inspired. I don’t do commissions or prints because It’s the originality of each piece that keeps me excited to come back to a blank surface.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I chose to go to a traditional figure painting school for grad school, I had imagined that I would use this education to more realistically paint the figures and scenes I was already painting. The things that I was painting consisted of: old photos of my family, the Gulf Coast, and southern women. All relics of my childhood and crucial to who I was. But during my time at school, I realized I didn’t care about accurately representing the figure or landscape at all. I was more interested in an abstract, imaginative language that came pouring out of me. This revelation was devastating but also exciting. During the two years at school, I got to know this voice that had been hidden and disguised behind images of the familiar and comfortable. My family, clientele, and many professors didn’t understand this transition and tried to convince me to return to the other style. I felt I didn’t belong in this school anymore and although it was uncomfortable, the pull towards this other abstract language was greater than the need to fit in and please others. By figuring out what I didn’t like, I learned so much about what I do like. By finding out who I wasn’t, I learned so much about who I was. Making this transition was the hardest decision I ever made in my career. Although it might not sound significant, the idea of losing the support of my family and the adoration of my current followers felt devastating. It was the first time that I had chosen myself and my needs over what was deemed “right” by my peers and it was the best business decision I ever made. There is no way Id be where I am now if I hadn’t followed my intuition. I might have lost some fans along the way, but I gained so much more.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

My most effective strategy for growing clientele is to remain more focused on my progress as an artist and less focused on the number of followers. I find that the more I grow as an artist, the more my clientele grows. All of that has been an entirely natural process and I don’t want to force any of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: Maryballart.com
• Instagram: @maryball_

Image Credits
Angela Ruby