Resumé

Maru

Born 1952
Currently resides in Philadelphia, Tennessee

Education
Personal lessons since age 10
Gasden State Community College at age 15
Jacksonville State University
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Work History
Graphic designer for 14 years, of which 6 years was the owner of I Design Studio
(1970–1984)

Art & Advertising director for MasterCraft Ski Boats (1984–1986)
Received multiple Addy Awards
Illustrated “Tennessee Tables” Cookbook for the Knoxville Junoir League

19 year sabbatical from the art world

2005 – 2008
Solo exhibit at Designer Framing, Lenoir City, TN
Juried showing at Knoxville Mayor’s Office, Knox County Mayor’s Office, and the East Tennessee Foundation Office
Selected artist for “Le Trois Chef” Charity Auction
Juried showing at Farragut, TN Art Council “Open Art Show 2005”
Knoxville Art Museum “Artist on Location” 2006, 2007, 2008
Selected artist for Oysterfest Auction
2 man Show at Blount Mansion Visitor Center
Juried Member Show, Arts & Cultural Alliance, Knoxville, TN
Solo Christmas Show at Designer Framing, Lenoir City, TN
Christmas Show at Arts & Cultural Alliance
Christmas Show Southern Market
Three Day Solo Show, Maggie Mae’s, Franklin, TN
Tennessee Art League New Member Show, Nashville, TN
2008 Juried Art Show, Dogwood Arts Festival, Knoxville, TN
2008 Juried Street Show, Rossini Festival, Knoxville, TN

Retail Outlets
Designer Framing, Lenoir City, TN
Southern Market, Knoxville, TN
Decor Outdoor, Knoxville, TN
Calico Alley, Attalla, Alabama
Fountain City Gallery, Fountain City, TN
Giggle’s Children’s Shop, Nashville, TN
White Balloon Children’s Shop, Knoxville, TN

Commissioned Pieces
“Harvest Day Mischief”, Le Trois Chef
“Cabo San Lucas”, Mr. & Mrs. George Buxton
“Poud Egret”, Mr. & Mrs. James Proud
“Anemones”, Pricilla Robinson
“Muff’s Yellow Rose”, Mr. & Mrs. Glenn Mincer
“Ashbook California” & “Ashbrook Tennessee”, Mr. & Mrs. Ashbrook
“Party with the Masten’s”, Mr. & Mrs. Buck Masten
“Salud”, Mrs. Spivey
“The Purvis Family”, Mr. & Mrs. David Purvis
“Circus Series”, Dr. & Mrs. Clay Harper
“Girls, Girls, Girls”, Mrs. Laura Hollins

CRITICAL REVIEW
by Lori Waxman, a Chigao-based critic and art historian

“Painting under the moniker “Maru”, Marcia Shelly practices a vibrant, broad form of genre painting that touches on such time-honored, pleasure-seeking subjects as the great outdoors, floral still-lifes, figuative portraits and animal scenes. Her style varies from work to work, as if seeking out the most enjoyabe approach: textured mountainscapes, flat and luminous plains, jazzy likenesses, soft-focus blooms, sketchy tourist pictures.

Of these, Mau’s vertiginous, 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 rea thing, or, at east a marvelously idealized version of that thing.”