Biography

One can tell by her vibrant colors and varied styles that the popular artist Marcia Shelly truly loves the world around her and enjoys every moment of her life. Shelly, whose art is painted under the moniker, MARU, is as delightful and full of spirit as her work, and she is an inspiration to all women who decide to go for their dreams.

Shelly’s dream has always been to be an artist. As early as the 5th grade she knew she had talent, when her mother tossed her a pencil and piece of paper. Had her draw a picture of her sister and everyone was amazed how realistic it was. She had found her calling and her dream.

Over the years she had the pleasure of taking numerous art classes, during which time she studied with many artists. Her talent soon landed her a job in the graphic design industry, which was drawn by hand, not computers. However it did not offer the financial rewards one might expect. So, with a son to care for, Shelly made a hard decision to put her paintbrushes down and begin a career as an insurance agent. Painting was then done as a hobby for herself, family and friends.

Her hiatus from the art world lasted twenty years, but in 2004, she took a leap of faith, dusted off her paintbrushes and sold her insurance agency. At this time she was commissioned to do a painting for Les Trois Chefs, an upscale charity event in Knoxville.

The exposure kick started her artistic career and she began to see her life long dream becoming real. She built a studio on the property where she and her husband Ray have restored a turn of the century farmhouse, and began to complete several series consisting of dozens of paintings. These series include “The Faces”, “The Children’s Compilations”, “Nature Studies”, and “The Rose Series”. Her Portraiture Series includes landscape portraiture, photo rendering, and stylized personalities. The bold canvases are splashed with brilliant hues in all sort of mediums-oils, acrylics, latex, pencil and marker. Shelly’s style is distinctive without being repetitive; therefore, each piece stands on its own.

In addition to “Harvest Day Mischief”, the piece commissioned by the charity ChildHelp, Shelly has completed several more commissioned pieces “Girls, Girls, Girls”, “The Pitons”, “After Scuba”, “Glenn’s Friends”, “Bellagio”, and “Family in St. Lucia”. She also created the wine label “Nite Vineyard” for Mountain Valley Winery. ChildHelp was so pleased with her first commissioned piece, that they commissioned a second piece, “Sunflower”. Once again the piece was so popular that giclees and prints were requested and continue to be sold. And she has illustrated the cookbook “Tennessee Tables” for the Knoxville Junior League.

Shelly’s work has been hung in the Knoxville Mayor’s Office, the Knox County Mayor’s Office, the Emporium, the Knoxville Art Council and the historical Blount Mansion, which hosted a month long public showing of her artwork. She has participated in many of Knoxville’s local art competitions including Dogwood’s Arts Festival, Knoxville Art Museum’s Artists on Location, The Arts & Cultural Alliance Member Show, Farragut’s Open Art Show and the prestigious Artsclamation! as well as the 2008 Rossini Festival.

A 2008 Critical Review by the Chicago-based critic and art historian had this to say about her work, “Painting under the moniker ‘Maru’, Marcia Shelly practices a vibrant, broad form of genre painting that touches on such time-honored, pleasue-seeking subjects as th great outdoors, floral still-lifes, figurative portraits, and animal scenes. Her style varies from work to work, as if seeking out the most enjoyable approach: textures mountainscapes, flat luminous plains, jazzy likenesses, soft-focused blooms, sketchy tourist pictures. Of these, Maru’s vetiginous, oddly-colored peaks appeal most, revealing a parallel between subject and object, paint and referent - the rough, irregular pigment reads as tough and sublime as the real thing, or, at least, a marvelously idealized version of that thing”.

From drawing a picture at the age of five to becoming a successful artist, Marcia Shelly proves that one’s road in life may be a long, windy one, but if you don’t give up, dreams will come true.