Mary Shelley is an American folk artist with no formal visual art training. Her art work has variously been described as naïve

Naïve art

Naïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...

, primitive

Primitive

Primitive may refer to:* Anarcho-primitivism, an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization* Primitive culture, one that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity...

 or self-taught. She graduated from Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in 1972 with a degree in English and Creative Writing, and has lived her entire adult life in Ithaca, NY. She began making her painted low relief woodcarvings in 1974, after her father sent her a painted woodcarving (inspired by the art work of Mario Sanchez

Mario Sanchez

Mario Sanchez is a squash player from Mexico. He was one of the leading hardball squash players in North America in the late-1970s and 1980s.- External links :*...

, Key West, Florida) that he made of Shelley as a child at the family farm. Shelley worked as a sign painter and carpenter from 1973 to 1990, and learning these trades helped her to develop woodworking and design skills important to her evolution into a visual artist.

Her work was shown at the Jay Johnson Folk Heritage Gallery from 1976 through 1990 when the gallery closed. From the start of her career until 2008, she has produced upwards of 2000 painted and carved wooden reliefs.

Shelley calls her work a “picture story” or “picture diary”. Many of her pieces are concerned with narrative, the telling of a story, the recording of an event. Shelley plays with metaphor, using cows and waitresses as stand-ins for her life experiences and feelings as a woman. Her work frequently contains veiled social commentary. She tends to work in series, the major among these being her diner, farm, outdoor, animal and dream series.

Work in permanent collections

• Smithsonian Institution
  Smithsonian Institution
  The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
  
   (Washington, DC)
• The John Judkin Memorial, American Museum in Britain, (Bath, England)
• American Folk Art Museum
  American Folk Art Museum
  The American Folk Art Museum is a museum devoted to American folk art, as well as the work of international self-taught artists. It has branches at 45 West 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in Midtown Manhattan .In May 2011 the Museum of Modern Art bought its 53rd Street location...
  
   (New York City, NY)
• The High Museum (Atlanta, GA)
• Fenimore Art Museum
  Fenimore Art Museum
  The Fenimore Art Museum is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, USA, operating under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association...
  
   (Cooperstown, NY)
• The National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC)
• Women’s Rights National Historical Park (Seneca Falls, NY)
• Anthony Petullo Art Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art (Milwaukee, WI)
• Absolut Vodka
  Absolut Vodka
  Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, Skåne, in southern Sweden. Since July 2008 the company has been owned by the French firm Pernod Ricard who bought V&S Group from the Swedish government....
  
   Art Collection
• World of Coca Cola

External links

• http://www.FenimoreArtMuseum,org
• http://www.petulloartcollection.org
• http://www.MichenerMuseum.org
• Artist's Website: http://www.maryshelleyfolkart.com