Honoring Your Creativity with Mary Marquiss

Creativity through the lens of an Artist, Author and Art Teacher,

"Nature has been my greatest art teacher."

Marquiss has been a professional artist, art teacher and writer in Bend, Oregon, for 34 years, and the author of Behind the Painting – An Artist’s Memoir, published May 7, 2026.
She developed her interest in art as a child, surrounded by the lush beauty of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Marquiss attended both the University of Oregon and UCLA, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. After graduating she became the Marketing Director for the first private psychiatric hospital in Reno, Nevada, and then a product manager for HCA in Nashville, TN.
When her daughter was born, she left her corporate career and returned to her art and writing. “I focused primarily on watercolor because it can be surprising and has a beautiful transparency. Painting with watercolor also teaches about control – when to take it and when to let go –as in life,” she explains. “The abstract cruciform design followed - after years of painting large format florals.”
Her recent memoir holds ten of her paintings and a personal story behind each one over a thirty year period. Over time, her paintings created a circular language between her art and her life.
This book takes the reader on artistic adventures in Paris and Southern France, the process of finding her artistic style and through tough challenges she faced including divorce, family suicide, a stroke and cancer.
As a character voice actor, her daughter Katherine Tole joined Marquiss on the audiobook edition.
Her original art and book information can be seen at www.marymarquiss.com.

Transcript

Mari 0:20

Welcome to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. I'm your host, Mari Reisberg. Over the past several years, I've combined my degrees in acting and somatic psychology to share my sustaining creativity techniques with performers. And now I've decided to share with a bigger audience that includes you. I believe we are all creative, and this podcast is all about that. I'll be interviewing people from all backgrounds, ages, and creativity experiences to share just how creative we all are. Today I'll be chatting with Mary Marquis, artist, author, and art teacher. Please enjoy Mary Marquis. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 in the US or to your local crisis center. And now let's get on with the show. Welcome to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. Today I'm chatting with Mary Marquis, artist, author, and art teacher. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Thank you, Mari. It's really fun to be here. I listened to your interview with um was Alexandra Beller. Yes. And I loved that conversation that you had. So looking forward to talking with you.

Mari 2:00

Well, I am thrilled to have you join me today. This has been uh I read your book. I got a a glimpse at it, which was spectacular. And I can't wait to talk about your journey of that process and the stories that you share in it. But before we get there, why don't you let our listeners know maybe an overview, a little bit about who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

So I have been an artist and an art teacher and a freelance writer for 30 years. And I recently wrote a book called Behind the Painting with 10 of my paintings and 10 stories that are interwoven with each painting over a 30-year period of time. So that was um that was nice to finally bring that together. It's really a marriage of both my art and my and my writing. So that's yeah. So now I'm just talking to people about it, which is fun. I love you.

Mari 3:02

Yes, and it's amazing to just, I mean, I I I don't know that while I was reading it, I fully captured that it was 30 years over the course of 30 years. So hearing you say that, I'm now I'm rethinking all of these pieces that I just read. I love that. And and it while, yes, it spanned 30 years, it really felt so present and relevant to things that we all navigate, whether personally or familial, is that a word? And in our families, it is now. It is now exactly. Well, before we dig into the your book, I'm curious, what does it mean to you to be creative?

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Well, I'm gonna refer back to Alexandra Beller um that interview because you asked her um about how it felt to in her body to feel creative. And I love I love what she said. She said, Oh, there I am. It's kind of like, oh, that's me. And for me, connecting with nature, because I was born and raised in Oregon, and the nature is abounds here, it hasn't been overdeveloped yet, the state. Um that growing up in a filbert orchard, which are hazelnuts, same thing. We grow filberts and we sell hazelnuts. I was in nature all the time. And whether it was the Oregon Coast and finding seashells or in the valley and the abundance of produce in the valley in you know in the summer. I mean, every kind of berry imaginable. I was just eating Marion berries yesterday, which were developed at Oregon State, right? In a combination of two berries they put together. Um I just think that being grounded in nature has really helped me navigate. And then um, yeah, I think that I would just say, you know, nature is the biggest, because nature teach has taught me uh so much about uh design, whether it's texture, shape, line, um, color, especially color. Nature puts red and green together, which are opposites on the color wheel. How how wise is that, you know, because they resonate with each other. And so nature's been my greatest art teacher, really. And that and so being in nature and seeing the beauty of what was created, um, that that makes that that makes me feel like what Alexander said is, oh, there I am, because I'm also part of nature.

Mari 5:50

So that's beautiful. I I love just being grounded in nature, that nature has taught you so much about design and color and texture, and utilizing that in your art, because those pictures in the book of your paintings or your pieces of art were uh they they elicited a visceral response from me when I saw them. So that was such a treat to have that visceral experience while also reading your words.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah, yeah, the the first uh, so there's 10 chapters, and in the beginning, when I was uh building my uh painting career, I am teaching, I focused on single flowers, you know, big Georgia O'Keeffe size roses or sunflower or um any any kind of singular flower. And then after about 10 years, I kind of bloomed out. I was like, oh, okay, there was selling, but that that's not what I wanted to do. And I started changing my style and moving more into abstract, which which I found a particular form called the cruciform. And it's not about religion, it's about more sense of spirit because it's it's just a really good design form where you have a horizontal line of some made up of lines, shapes, colors, texture, and then you have a vertical, and somewhere on that picture plane they're gonna cross. So I was doing that abstract uh series long before cancer was discovered. And then when cancer was discovered, I leaned into that form because I reached out on that horizontal, I reached out to my community for help. I'd always been one of those people that said, Oh, I can handle it, I can do it myself. I was so independent, but no, not when you are hardly able to move. You you you reach out for help. So everybody around me was I that I could think of to reach out to, I did. And then that vertical line was really more of a grounding, like I was just talking about grounding in nature and and reaching up for any kind of connection that you have. As long as you don't call yourself God, I think we're fine. We're fine, you know, to to reach up. I love it, yeah. And so yeah, I was kind of held in there where those two crosses were I felt held. Go navigating that transition in your life for sure. I got I've got some stability out here with my family and community, and and I've got this vertical connection with spirit, however you want to define spirit, and and the ground. And I and I was held in there. I really felt like that was my secure, kind of like a nest, you know, like a building there. Yeah, you can visualize that. Yeah. So the abstracts are more uh at the back of the book.

Mari 8:55

Yes. And and that journey from those single flowers to uh that picture of the woman on the bicycle was oh, I love that just took me right back to where wherever you were. Were you in France? I was in Paris.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

I was in Paris when I saw that. And that that the orange her orange coat against that blue building. See, there again, you've got opposites on the color wheel, orange and blue. And so that's what captured my my eye because I'm always mixing color in my head with watercolor. You you mix because that water is fluid, and so put colors into a shape and they can merge and dance, which teaches me, which teaches me about movement, which teaches me about letting go. So in in that one chapter where I was going through a divorce, and I washed my painting all the way down the drain that I had spent weeks weeks on. But I knew I knew it wasn't my best work. And my friend took me out to her house, and we it was on 300-pound watercolor paper. So it's like cardboard weight. Yeah. So we we watched, I watched as it all those colors merged and went down the drain. And I was letting go of my marriage, my little sweet, you know, at the same time as I watched all those colors go down the drain. But then I build it back up.

unknown 10:22

Yeah.

Mari 10:23

And I mean, that metaphor of letting go and building back up. I feel like in each chapter you had an experience of that. Every chapter had an essence or a moment of letting go and then rebuilding, almost that, like some of them felt more Phoenix-esque of like being set on fire and having to yeah, there's there's no shortage of life lessons out there.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

No shortage, right? So we we either move through them or we get stuck, I think. And and so at some point, so at my age by now, I'm like, okay, I I know that uh that that we we can rise again, but they're gonna come. I mean, I remember, I remember sitting uh some workshop somewhere when I was 38, 39, thinking, oh, I don't want any more bad things to happen to me. Oh, the rest of my life I just I just want to be, you know, be free of all that. Well, no, no, you you you don't you don't get to. Um so so the the question is what do you what do you do? You know, and so working through those transitions and letting go and then moving on down the river, right? I'm right here on the Macy River. It's like the river flowing, and sometimes I get stuck a little bit on the side, you know, like it's brambles or something. Maybe there's blackberries I can eat while I'm hanging out there, you know, in August. Um, but then you know, the river picks me up and I move on on down. So I I guess um I guess that's sort of the meaning of being weathered, perhaps.

Mari 12:02

I you know, I in hearing you you speak about kind of this journey of letting go and kind of rebuilding, I'm just struck by how much trust one has to have for that, to not get stuck and stay stuck, but to trust that I it's okay to keep moving. How did you kind of come to that understanding that you're allowed to keep moving even through really intense challenges? Divorce, cancer, loss, grief?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Well, part of it I would say is courage. But but I would say more than that, it's a desire to get through it and onto the other side, not to be stuck. I don't want to be stuck, you know. In week three of my cancer chemotherapy and radiation, I asked the nurse when she was doing an infusion in the infusion room at St. Charles and Bend, I said, you know, it kind of feels like you're taking me right to the edge and you're trying not to put push me over. And she she paused and said, Yeah, that's kind of what we do. It's like they're just gonna kill everything. And eventually I know we will get to a place where it's not so harsh. But chemo drugs are very brutal because they kill everything. And so I think for me, I didn't want to stay feeling bad. So you're motivated, you're motivated to get through so you can get to the other side. I mean, in in that fundamental simple way, it's like, I don't want to stay here. I I don't like it here. I want to get out of here, you know. And when when I was in that infusion room um, again with the cruciform, it faces the Three Sisters Mountains, and there's these massive windows. I mean, whoo, just all windows on that, on that west facing sides with the Three Sisters Mountains. And so beautiful snow, you know, snow top mountains. And so that's the horizontal line right there. And I was in the back of the room, and so these vertical poles with all these chemo drugs that were dripping into people's bodies were all vertical. So there it was, the horizontal and the vertical. And I sat there looking at that, and we were all facing towards the west windows, like we were all waiting for a movie, you know, instead of being, you know, and I thought, there it is again. There it is. That's what I needed to be reminded of, Mary. You're gonna be okay, you're gonna get through. So, so it's the trust comes from experience, but you have to, you know, when I had two miscarriages early on, and then I went through a divorce, and and it was with my one of my best friends that my husband was having the affairs with for two years. Uh it was hard to get through it, yeah, but that's what then it's like anything, it builds muscle. And then you realize, well, I got through this one, you know. Hopefully nothing else will come. Little did I know, cancer was going to be on the horizon. But you know, I got through that. I learned I learned some things. Yeah, and and so I'm gonna take what I learned. A lot of it is empathy and compassion for other people. That's that's what that's what I because we're all in this together. And um yeah, I learned that I could get through. I I learned that I had I could persevere. Does that does that ring true for you?

Mari 15:39

Absolutely. I mean, I think the what you said, trust comes from experience. I I think it it's it's kind of the both and it comes from experience, and when we don't have the experience, there's still an opportunity to trust. Yes, and it builds that experience.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah. Yeah, because I've I've realized that if I don't step into a lesson, if I if I pretend or am in denial or push it away, it's gonna come back around. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. They give me another chance to recognize it and and learn from it.

Mari 16:20

Yeah, yeah. So that's go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Well, it seems that's how life works, is it it's it gives you another chance to learn the lesson.

Mari 16:31

It does. This is very true. My mother says the life gives you the perfume version, and if you don't get it that time, you may get the toilet water version.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Oh wow, I never heard that. Oh, I've never heard that. That's a good one. That's a good one. Wow. So pay attention, right?

Mari 16:51

Pay attention, exactly. For you in your own art, I'm curious, you know, how how has your art helped kind of transform experiences for you, or how do you use your art to help you keep moving?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Um it's who I've always been.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Um so for instance, uh, the cover on the cover of the book, uh, there's a poppy that's cropped a little bit, but that was the first time that I realized that my art was helping me. So I painted a poppy. There were lots of irises in the background. I used Prussian blue to cover all of them because I kept looking at the poppy, realizing it needed to just be about one flower. Little did I know that my husband was having an affair and I would be navigating a divorce. Um, so I took the painting to my One Woman show. It was the first to sell. Then another woman came along and said, I'd like to buy that poppy. She said, uh, a friend of mine um went through a divorce and she's a very passionate person, and uh, she left a little money after she drove herself off a cliff in Portland.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

And I like to buy that painting to honor her. Well, I I wasn't going through a divorce yet, but I thought, oh my gosh, I don't usually paint a second painting of the same, but I do a series, a series, which is just a variation on on the initial design. And I thought, this is this is important. So I I said, okay, okay, I'll I'll paint you another one, even though this one's sold, but it won't be the same. It'll be a little bit of a very, you know, it might be better, might be stronger, because I've worked out the design issues. And uh then we had it framed and it hung in her beautiful, beautiful home that was all neutral tones, and then the red poppy was pretty strong because it wasn't competing with anything else. And uh then I found out about uh the affair and realized that I needed to step through divorce too. And I was teaching them art lessons at that point. So every week I would go into their home and I would see that poppy. And I was pretty crushed by the whole thing, and and we had a 16-year-old daughter, um, it was not a good time at all. It was rough, and I would see that poppy, and I would think, I don't I don't feel strong, I don't feel strong at all. But that poppy looks so strong. How well who well, I did that. I I painted that, so there must be more strength within me uh than I realize. And I'm gonna need to pull on that strength to get through. And that's what I did, and that's the first time that any of my art after maybe 15 years, 12 years of painting, that that a painting really spoke back. And uh the the other way is using art as therapy. That was a circular language where the art spoke back to me. But then there's also when you just feel like you just need to express your feelings and not hurt anyone or or yell at anyone, not yell at anyone. I'm not really a screamer, um I'm more inward. That that you I just wet a shape and I drop color into it and let it swim and I make marks. Um and and I can set it aside and then I can go back to it and add, and it's just kind of this painting that gets to be a form of expression. It's not trying to be anything, maybe it does evolve into something, but that's just me putting marks on paper and as a way of of um therapy, yeah, kind of expressing that inner expressing expressing those in the inner feelings, the inner landscape. And what's interesting, I think, is anyone who does that, that's gonna give them something in return. Why are you picking pink over black? Why are you wanting to make little tiny, tiny marks versus being big and bold? You know, I think it gives you information back whenever you express something from the inside out. Absolutely.

Mari 21:45

Well, for individuals who are, you know, in the the throes of an art experience or art career, or people who are just starting, what are some tips or tools to kind of start? That real more of a relationship with the art that you're creating.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Okay, okay, good, good. Um, so as an art teacher for over 30 years, um what I recommend highly is three colors, just get three colors, and watercolor is nice because it's fluid. Don't worry about um getting uh too complicated with it. You just have a red, a blue, and a yellow. And and with that you can you can make green and purple and orange. So you've got your primary colors, and then you've got you can create your secondary from just those three, and then you can create tertiary if you want to go again, um expanding out. And so that's how I often start many of my paintings, and then I'll pull in a few other colors that really speak to me. Now there's a reason why they resonate with you, so pull them in if you want to, but just start with three and get a really good brush because you deserve to give yourself the best, even if you're a beginner. I always start people off with a really good quality brush and really good paper, high quality paper, like arches. Um, I don't recommend getting the cheap things because what if you start out and you create something that you absolutely love, but it's on cheap paper? That's not good. You want to honor it, honor anything that you do, honor it. And and and that's really important because you're honoring yourself by putting that out there. And some of my best fun work was when I was a beginner. I took a year of drawing, you know, at the University of Oregon, only drawing, and learned about line. And some of those, I go back to some of those early ones, and they're sweet, you know, they were new and fresh, and and um I didn't know how to draw a face. And so my self-portrait was me with a hat kind of over you know, over my face. And everyone, and the teacher I remember thought, oh, that's really creative. That's really that's really innovative. And I didn't want to say, but I could have, well, I don't know how to draw a face, so I just covered my face with a hat, you know.

Mari 24:06

But what a creative solution to a problem or to a challenge. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Yeah. So then the paper. Um I I would get a size 10 a brush because that you can you you can do little tiny work with it, but you can also do broader strokes. So three tubes, um you know, your your red, your your your yellow, and your um blue. Did I I think I said that in the beginning? Red, yellow, blue. I hope I did. Um and again, a really good quality. Um, I use Windsor Newton. It's expensive, but yeah, a little bit goes a long way. And the color that you get with a Windsor Newton is brilliant. It's just better. I mean, when classes were back in the day, people would come with all their supplies and I would have a demonstration. And students would come up to me and say, Well, why isn't my color as strong as her color? And I would say, Well, because honestly, she used a more uh a better quality, higher quality paint. And it it matters, it matters. So is that yeah, so I think that's it.

Mari 25:23

Yeah, so just to recap, yeah, pick your three colors, have a really good paint brush and really good quality paper. And paint and paint and good quality paint, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

Brush, paper, paint, brush, paper, and you can get water anywhere. Oh, I love it. Thank you for the people that yeah, there are a lot of people that really prefer acrylics because they can control them. Well, what what I I understand that, but what I always loved was the magic that happened with watercolor. If you don't try and control it, if you just kind of let it, you know, go and see see what it where it goes and have fun. Just have fun with it.

Mari 26:07

And this is yeah, yeah. That sounds like also kind of allowing allowing yourself to be swept away in the water and the color and the just to let it be what it is.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

And you can always learn, yeah, you can always learn technique. There's a lot uh watercolor is very technique laden, so there's lots of different techniques you can use, you know, but initially just play around. So it's red, yellow, blue, it's a it's good paper, a good brush, um, a good paint, and water and and have at it. I love I love it. Yeah, you can splatter, yeah. You can take a toothbrush and you can splatter, or the brush you can splatter, and that makes like a field of poppies, and you just put a little stims on. I mean, there's so many things that you can do. And um, and and play, uh Freud said that play is a child's work. And every student almost that I've ever had has wanted to get back to that playful place. Right. I love it.

Mari 27:11

Great reminder. I'm curious, what you know, having written this book and you have all this art and you have these life experiences, what were the lessons that you took away from writing this book?

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Well, very interesting. I I lived the experiences, and then I wrote about them, and I had three different editors, and each editor had a different lens on my work, which was really helpful. Then I didn't know that I would have to do this, but I then worked with an audio coach to voice coach to do the audiobook. Now, my my daughter, who got her chemical engineering degree at Oregon State, became then after a couple startups, engineering startups, she became a voice actor, character voice actor in Seattle. So I called Catherine, my daughter, and I said, So, ready for the audiobook now? I'll send you the script. And she said, Oh no, oh no. I am not an audiobook voice actor. I am a character voice actor. Oh, okay, well then um what do I do? She said, I recommend you you here's here's two sources, one in New York, another or somewhere else. You you can get your um practice with the audio coach. You can get your um experience with an audio coach, and that and that will be just great. And I okay, okay, but I mean I'd already experienced those things. Then I had written about them, which took me a couple of years. Now I'm gonna voice them. Well, I wasn't really prepared for emotional voicing all that again, experiencing it again was gonna be because you you don't just read it, you you you voice, you act it. Right. And so I was back there again in the midst of those things. And my my uh voice coach and I were were working through each chapter, um, because I could only do one chapter at a time emotionally. Then we got to chapter seven, which is about Harry and Harvey, who are my loyal adrenal glands, who were basically telling me, hey Annie, you gotta slow down, you know, you're not moving too fast. And you're burning through your adrenals. Um and I my voice coach and I looked at each other, like, what do adrenal glands sound like? I mean, when you can you can write about them, sure, but when you're having to voice them, um, so I thought, I know who will know. My daughter. She's a character voice actor. This is what she does. So I called her. Oh, sure, mom. Oh, yeah, sure, sure. I'll just do that this evening and you can check it in the morning and see what you think. Well, when I listened to them, I listened to her through my really good speakers in my living room. And she gave my two adrenal glands, Harry and Harvey, a southern twang, a masculine southern twang. She she nailed it, and I was laughing, you know, because because I didn't realize when I had written it that Harry was the dominant adrenal gland. Harvey was was was was the total like, oh sure, Harry, whatever you say, Harry, you know, that's fine, Harry. I didn't realize how compliant, you know, Harvey was until I listened to her her rendition. So in the audiobook that is on that is also available, I voice everything except chapter seven, and that's when my daughter comes in.

Mari 30:56

I I love just the story of kind of that experience of narrating an audiobook and having to relive everything and then the collaboration with your daughter. What a treat to have that be a part of this as well. And I know you have the book and the audiobook and your artwork out, but before you let us know where we can get it, I just have one last question for you. What does it feel like in your body to be creative?

SPEAKER_00 31:45

It's what I it's what I w what I was designed to do. And so it's it feels like coming home. And sometimes I I have to push myself over the threshold into my art studio because life is so busy. Life can be. Can be. But when I go into my art studio and I start playing with color and warming up, because just like running, you know, you have to warm up, you don't just launch into a painting. Um, I warm up and I play around. And I feel like uh yeah, this is this is where I'm supposed to be. And as a writer, writing and art are so different. When I'm writing, it's more headspace. You know, I'm more more in that that um left brain. But when I'm painting, I'm more in my right brain. And they both fire pretty well. I mean, they work together, we know that the left and the right brain. But it it just feels it just feels good. And um it's like what you're yeah, what I was designed to do and um yeah, coming home. And I love that art has helped me through life's challenges. Yeah. Uh it's been my it's been my support, it's my support team.

Mari 33:08

I love it. I love all of this. And this has been such a rich and beautiful conversation. If people want to learn more about your book, your audiobook, your art that you have out in the world, how could they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_00 33:22

So I use a London publisher, but they um I'm set up on Amazon. So Amazon has my paperback and my audiobook and the ebook that are all available on Amazon. And um, yeah, that it's it's available in a few independent bookstores in Portland and and in Oregon only. So yeah, yeah. I wanted to support independent bookstores the best the most as as well as I could. So yeah.

Mari 33:51

And tell us your website where we can see your art and also the other things you have going on.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Yeah, that's right. All my art is on my website as well as the book. Uh it's www. I don't know if people even use those W's anymore in the front. Um, and then just my name, Mary Marquis, M-A-R-Y-M-A-R-Q-U-I-S.com.

Mari 34:13

Perfect. Well, I will put links in show notes so people have easy access. And thank you so much for this conversation. This has been so wonderful. Thanks, Mari. It's been really fun.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

We should do this again sometime. I love it. Yeah. Okay. Or we can get together and start something. Even better.

Mari 34:40

Thanks for listening to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. We'd love to keep in touch, so follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We are at Sustaining Creativity. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Tag your friends and family so they can listen too. We love to hear from you, so leave your reviews, comments, and questions. Check out our website, sustainingcreativity.com, for upcoming offerings and creativity coaching. Tune in Tuesdays for our next episode. And remember, with creativity, anything's possible.