We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maureen C. Berry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Maureen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
My first solo art exhibition greatly impacted my growth as an artist, but its significance meant more than creating a large body of work.
In the summer of 2022, I booked an African safari for Feb. 2023 with an acquaintance who managed a travel agency. This was my first trip to Africa and the first wildlife safari. My husband would stay in Kentucky to manage our business and care for our dog. My health was good, meaning I was NED (no evidence of disease) from a rare, life-threatening cancer in 2019. My doctors had just extended my surveillance scan from every four months to every six months. I was thrilled. Africa seemed other-worldly, and after surviving cancer during COVID, traveling to see animals in the wild felt like a miracle come true.
As an artist, in addition to photographing as many species as possible, I decided to videotape while there to create a small film, something I had never done but felt was in my wheelhouse. This was a trip of a lifetime.
By December, two months before flying to Nairobi, I experienced the typical exciting pre-jitters for a two-week trip out of the country—what to pack, managing insurance, getting the proper vaccines, etc. However, I was also feeling a pain in my stomach that resembled the first symptoms I experienced in 2019 before I was diagnosed with dedifferentiated liposarcoma. Then, the oncologists told me that the chance of recurrence was high due to the nature and location of the tumor site, my abdomen. Then, like in December, I had difficulty eating without pain and noticed I was fatigued when I should’ve had more energy. After discussing my issues with the oncologist, we agreed to an immediate CT scan. Sure enough, I had another tumor. This time, the tumor was only the size of a golf ball, unlike the first time it was basketball-sized. I had to make a decision—have surgery and not travel to Africa, or go to Africa and take a chance with my health.
The two greatest risks to my health were dehydration and infection. February is the dry season in Africa, and hydrating is essential, but my tumor was pressing on my stomach, making me full fast. And since my spleen was removed during the first surgery, I couldn’t take the yellow fever vaccine. The other challenge about going to Africa on safari was the camp’s proximity to an international airport. Nairobi was the closest airport and a ten-hour drive from camp. After consulting with the travel agents, they assured me that a safe evacuation was doable. With the doctor’s blessing and a double dose of antibiotics, my decision was firm—I would go.
Once I returned, within six weeks, I’d had a successful surgery with no additional treatments. Recovery was quick, and I began to edit images from the trip, envisioning a gallery showing. I created a lookbook, a digital file showcasing twenty of my best shots, all developed in black and white to focus on the animals’ facial features and shadows. I shared the lookbook with a gallery owner, who accepted four images. I then shared a few online, and a friend dropped a name; I made a call, and within a month, in early July, five months after returning from Africa and four months after surgery, I signed an agreement for a solo, six-week, eighty-piece multi-media exhibition. Wild African Adventures in Art features photography, watercolors, ink, a short film, and slides at the Glema Mahr Center for the Arts.
I learned much during the show’s production—contract negotiation, how to tell an animal conservation story in a large venue using various mediums, budgeting my time for production, back-of-the-house management, and marketing. I learned I could do anything I set out to do, especially in the face of adversity. I’d always subscribed to this theory, but putting it into practice during this time gave me more confidence. I have considered my privilege during this time as well. Financing the trip, the cost of framing and materials to produce high-quality art, and the physical time and energy needed to sustain and produce a large body of art is a privilege, but I’m not flush with money. Also, at sixty-two and two major cancer surgeries behind me, I have to work a little harder to maintain a healthy balance—financially, physically, and emotionally.
While I wouldn’t say I create art with money as the objective, there’s no denying it: I’d like to recoup and profit from my work. Producing art at this scale reveals character and requires stamina and blind faith. I do it for love, but I also have hospital bills to pay!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a self-taught Kentucky-based multidisciplinary creative professional with three years of experience specializing in watercolor painting and mixed media art and twelve years of experience as a photographer, writer, and author.
My nature-themed and bird paintings are realistic. My abstracts are bold and striking, while my mixed media uses single-use plastic and inspirational quotes. My wildlife portraits are inked in monotone neutrals, highlighting facial emotions and shadows. My photography depicts animals in action or resting and humans in contemplation.
The natural world, with its grand, rugged snow-capped mountains, towering trees, quirky fungi and deep-sea creatures, oceans of blue, spring’s lushness, summer’s bounty, and cloud formations, all influence me. I aim to capture and maintain the essence and forces of nature and life, juxtaposing words, colors, and shapes to create eye-pleasing visuals.
My mission is to make art that connects the audience to the natural and intricate emotional world, encouraging introspection, a reset, and positive transformation. Life’s cycles, seasons, and infinite and not-so-infinite resources are my source of inspiration.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn the misnomer that artists can’t make a living from creating art.
I was raised in the ’60s and ’70s in a lower economic blue-collar environment with a single parent and eleven siblings where eating was a privilege. In eleventh grade, I had “the talk” with Mom about what I would do when I graduated the following year.
She started with, “Either get an education or get married.”
I wanted to ask her why I couldn’t do both, but her pursed lips told me this was not a negotiation.
I yelled, “I want to go to art school.”
“Artists don’t make any money,” she said.
She would’ve loved me to go to nursing school like her, but I was not too fond of the sight of blood. I knew I was disappointing her. And I didn’t see marriage as an option since, at the time, I didn’t even have a boyfriend.
“What if I can get a grant to go to college?” I asked.
She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no. So, I enrolled in an industrial drawing and design program in school, applied for grants, and worked after school to pay for the college admissions application. I attended a state college and studied criminology and pre-law because Mom’s words still rang: I couldn’t make a living as an artist.
Fast forward forty years to when I began to slowly live my dream. A charcoal drawing class here, a stained glass class there. I sketched, journaled, and took writing classes while I worked as a commodities seafood sales rep and broker in the industrial food system. My goal was to write and photograph a series of seafood cookbooks and eventually speak around the country to help home cooks become better seafood stewards at the market and in the kitchen. I wrote a food blog and began to work on my food styling and photography skills. I was still not making enough money to support my artist lifestyle, but I was growing and learning.
2010, I finally quit my day job and hired a writing coach. I set up my social media accounts, and in 2016, I published Salmon From Market to Plate, When You Want to Eat Salmon that Is Good for You and the Oceans. I launched a podcast, Green Fish Blue OCeans, and networked at food conferences where I met others interested in helping me get on the national stage to speak about the importance of a healthy diet of sustainable seafood for ourselves and the planet. In 2019, I submitted the second cookbook proposal and was invited to be the talent for a weekend cooking and speaking event at the Seattle Aquarium when I was diagnosed with dedifferentiated liposarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue.
After a life-threatening pre-chemo treatment, a ten-hour surgery, and an extensive hospital stay, I was alive, but barely. Part of my hospital treatment included art therapy. This was my Aha moment. I would get healthy and become the artist I’d always dreamed of becoming.
As a late-in-life creative, I’m learning every day. Fortunately, I have a husband and our business that supports my work and art supplies, but I’m also now taking commissions, selling art in galleries and online, and practicing my craft daily. My upbringing and Mom’s words shaped me into the woman and artist I am today. Despite her biased opinion, she was speaking from a maternal duty and from her perspective. I would love it if she were still alive to see what I’ve accomplished, but I live with the knowledge that she’s in my heart and energy.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Because I came to art later in life, I feel an urgency to produce and create. Additionally, I’ve been at the lowest point in my life physically due to cancer, and this has created an energy that feels like I’m running out of time. It’s exciting energy but also fraught with potential burnout. It’s hard to sustain constant creativity, so I take great care to maintain balance—daily walks, light yoga, good food, limited caffeine and alcohol, and resting often.
A particular goal or mission I’d like to address in my art is animal and ocean conservation. I’ve created a few smaller pieces, but I envision a larger work of art using mixed media to inspire, wow, and create a sense of wellness for the viewer and the planet.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://maureencberry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maureenc.berry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maureencavanaughberry
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureencberry/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaureenCBerry
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MaureenCBerry
- Other: Substack: pARTake newsletter, https://maureencberry.substack.com/
Image Credits
Maureen C. Berry