Fund Raising Activities 2010
ART SHOW -
Mary Lou Salazar, Storyteller and Artist
Saturday, April 17th, 2010
3pm-7pm
Proceeds to benefit: Central Community Theatre, Rosie’s House, & AMCSA Art work by Artist Mary Lou Salazar
Artist biography:
In 1991, Mary Lou, who’s had no formal art training, retired from a full-time dental career due to health reasons. While watching a PBS ceramics painting demonstration she got the idea that she could do it as well. Her ceramics painting developed into complete dinnerwear sets.
Mary Lou started selling her artistic dinnerware sets through the suggestion of friends who would come to her home for dinner. Her family affirmed her gift. This inspired her even more. One of her first sets of dishes was sold to a doctor from Texas. Once while visiting in Santa Cruz, California, a customer whom she had met there, flew to Phoenix with her, purchased multiple pieces of her art work, and took them home to Chicago. Her dinnerware sets are now in New York and up along the East Coast.
In Phoenix, Mary Lou’s first formal showing of her work was at a 1995 art show at The Buttes resort that was sponsored by Allied Signal. She’s also shown her work at the Hispanic Women’s International Art Show and at a Fundraiser for ASU. Commercially, her work has been at Jan’s Marketplace at the Arizona Center, Casa Del Canto Gallery in Scottsdale, Calico Tree in Wickenburg and Los Dos Molinos Gallery in the South Phoenix restaurant of the same name.
Currently, her work can be seen at the Silver Mountain Trading Company in Glendale. She’s also been featured in Ceramics Magazine and her dinnerware sets were used for display in the national cookbook, America’s Hottest New Chefs. Due to health reasons, it is difficult for Mary Lou to keep her artwork continually at retail stores; therefore, most of her work is sold privately. Her hope is that a younger member of her family will continue the storytelling of the family through art. She knows she won’t be able to paint so intricately with such detail forever so she’s creating dinnerware sets for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In this way, the legacy that she’s been given will be passed on to the next generation and to the next.
-Taken from an article written by Sharon Meyer.