THE PAINTER
Mary Vaughan is a narrative, yet abstract painter whose work exudes a strong painterly quality, capturing land form and earth entity. Her paintings are memorable for their ability to evoke meaning beyond the obvious with visual metaphor. Her art like her personality, ranges from poignant to playful, often touched with an animated quality of life.
CHILDHOOD
Mary Linnea Vaughan was born in 1960. She grew up in Hastings, Nebraska across the street from a city park known for its unique water display called Fisher Fountain. It had been left there after the 1933 State Fair, becoming a beloved landmark.
Koolaid was invented in Vaughan’s hometown in 1927. As a child, Mary believed this tasty drink shot out of the manmade geyser through tall strands of rainbow-colors on hot, breezy evenings. She would dally in the coolness of spraying water as many kids did, trying to catch mouthfuls of colored mist from the old structure.
She was sure it was Koolaid; until, like the myth of Santa, we are told differently. Somewhat hurt by reality, we do go on, either allowing some of the magic we knew as children to linger in our adult lives or not.
This old water fountain still operates today, as does Vaughan’s lingering emotional response to color – an important ingredient to her work and to a component of nostalgia found in her paintings.
In her youth, Nebraska offered outdoor places to roam, to discover a rawness of element found in the changing seasons. Growing things in the summer, insects humming, locust shells left behind, vast, clear nights of infinite stars, abundant bird life, then, harsh winter months where trees were cherished like characters across flat iron plains, all melded into her young psyche.
A poet once said, “Art is the beauty of giving back to a place over and over again.” If place manifests love or great feeling, it stays with you. Although Vaughan has lived decades in New Jersey and California, Nebraska continues to own the horizontal line of her character, keeping her art as open and free as where she hails from.
EDUCATION
Mary Vaughan holds an MA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, and an MFA from the Maine College of Art (MECA&D) in Portland. Her undergraduate degree is from Hastings College, a small liberal arts college in Nebraska where she majored in Art, Literature and Education.
Her most influential teachers and mentors have been Katarina Weslien, Head of Studio at MECA&D; Lenny Long, a painting teacher at RISD; Christi Teasley, a fellow RISD peer and experimental painter from Tennessee; Madelaine Shellaby, a brilliant teaching colleague at Stuart in Princeton; Dr Elmer Schock, a “high art” choir director at Hastings College; and Andrea Doerr, who encouraged Vaughan in high school to reach for art through creative writing. Her mother Evadne (ee-vod-nee), instilled a strong love for all things meaningful through literature, poetry, the natural world and through the hands-on joy of turning nothing into something.
ARTISTIC EVOLUTION
Residencies
Maine College of Art & Design/Jenny Family Residency – Nova Scotia [July 2025]
Red Barn Studio/Lester Raymer Society Residency – Lindsborg, KS [May 2019]
Alden Weir Farm Residency – Wilton, CT [August 2017]
Maine College of Art Alum Residency – Portland, ME [July 2016]
Stephan Pace House Artist Residency – Stonington, ME [September 2011]
Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Visual Artist Residency – NE [August 2004]
Cape Cod Artist Residency/Sabbatical – Cotuit, MA [2000]
Johnson Studio Center – Johnson, VT [Summer 1997]
Burren College of Art, County Claire – Ballyvaughan, Ireland [Summer 1996]
Pont Aven School of Art, Pont Aven – Brittany, France [Summer 1995]
Bennington Art Workshops – Bennington, VT [Summer 1991]
Juried Exhibits
Wings Over the Platte/Solo Exhibit Stuhr Museum – Grand Island, NE [Feb 2023]
Governor’s Exhibit through the Nebraska State Arts Council – Omaha, NE [2023]
Art Trails of Sonoma County: Juried Studio Tour – Santa Rosa, CA [October 2002-2023]
Musuem of Nebraska Art – MONA Spirit Show [April 2018, 2019, 2020]
Fred Simons Gallery: Exhibition Program – Omaha, NE [March-April 2016]
MECA Alum Juried Exhibit: Gallery at Somes Sound – Somesville, ME [July 2014]
Maine Influences Larry Simon Gallery – Santa Rosa, CA [January 2014]
International Society of Acrylic Painters Show – Santa Cruz, CA [August 2009]
10 Commandments Collaboration: Sonoma Museum of Visual Art – CA [2003]
Unbridled Eclecticism: Collection of Woody Dana – Portland, ME [August 2000]
French Library Exhibit: Pont Aven Paintings – Boston, MA [April 1996]
Awards
Janet Charnofsky Award: “Not Just Landscapes” – CA [February 2019]
UNL Premier of April Twlights by WIlla Cather: Digital Set – NE [April 2018]
Sutter Health of Northern California Permanent Collection – CA [2017]
Induction Award: Hastings College Permanent Collection – NE [July 2014]
Pacifica Art Center Exhibit: Honorable Mention Award – CA [March 2010]
Best of Show: Elinor Bartholomew Fine Arts Festival – NE [April 2006 & April 2012]
Winner: Best of Show: Kendall Jackson Tomato Festival – CA [2002, 2003,2005]
New Jersey State Heritage Award – Trenton, NJ [May 1996]
Stuhr Museum Exhibit, Grand Island, NE
Eastside Gallery, Hastings, NE
