Mary Schiros
mi -live news
Link to news article from Mary's show in Grand Blanc MI;
grandblanc/index.ssf/2008/12/local_scientist_mary_beth_schi.html
Local scientist Mary Beth Schiros moonlights as artist
Published: Friday, December 19, 2008, 11:32 AM Updated: Friday, December 19, 2008, 11:38 AM
GRAND BLANC, Michigan — Mary Beth Schiros of Grand Blanc is something of a Renaissance woman. Her paintings, done in a variety of mediums, are being exhibited at Boundless Arts.
By day, she is a clinical lab scientist at Lapeer Regional Medical Center. She is a talented jewelry maker. She and her husband, Joe Schiros, have rescued several dozen greyhounds. She is a cat and horse lover. And she's pretty handy with a firearm. Schiros and her husband are members of the Linden Sportsmen's Club.
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Schiros is fond of combining her passions. Greyhounds, cats and horses appear in many of her paintings. And at some point, her handgun will be doing some painting.
She wants to take canvases, paints and her handgun to the shooting range, shoot the paint containers and see what kind of creation ends up on the canvas. Not as easy as it sounds. She said the trick is to figure out how to pressurize the paint so you have an idea how it will explode.
Steve Lund of Grand Blanc Township, also a member of the sportsmen's club, attended the exhibit opening and purchased a print of a painting titled "The Pond Edge," inspired by nature scenes from behind the township's Grand Ridge Galleria mall.
"Shooting is one of those things just like painting. You have to spend some time with it to get there," Lund said.
Schiros is a member of the Grand Blanc Arts Council, as is fellow painter Robert Van Duyne of Grand Blanc, who attended opening night of her exhibit last month.
"I like her work because it's such bright colors. She does such a good job of working all the colors together, which is something I've struggled with," Van Duyne said.
Sometimes those colors come to Schiros in her dreams.
"If I can get a piece of paper in my hand before it fades, then I can capture the memory," she said.
That's what happened with her painting "Heaven's Gate." A white waterfall runs through abstract blue and green mountains as birds hover and a bright sun peeks out of a purple sky.
Schiros works in watercolor, acrylic and collage. She has always drawn and painted but got more serious about her art six years ago. Her work is regularly for sale at an artists' co-op on the second floor of the Flint Farmers' Market. But Schiros said she paid her dues by starting out at craft sales and art fairs.
"That's where you toughen up," she said. "You'll hear all kinds of things."
Apparently, shoppers at these events are often rather blunt about their opinions of an artist's work, as if the artist isn't standing right there listening. Still, Schiros saw it as a learning experience and rejoiced when her paintings and jewelry sold.
While many original works are for sale at Boundless Arts, most of her collages and paintings also are available as prints. Many of her paintings can be seen at .
