MARY F. COATS
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, Oil and Flashe on panel, 12" x 9", 2015

Born in London, England, but raised in Evanston, Illinois, Mary F. Coats currently lives in Nevada City, California. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa in 2013 where she was awarded the Mildred Pelzer Lynch Fellowship in Painting. Coats also received a Masters from the University of Iowa in 2012, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008. She was recently selected to feature in New American Paintings, Midwest Issue No. 101, and was awarded an Artist Grant from the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT. Coats has taught at the University of Iowa, Grinnell College, Kirkwood Community College, John Adams Academy, and the City of Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department.

The artist writes:

Although each painting can be considered individually, I am interested in the constant repetition, echoing, and color play that is occurring in the work.  I feel that through these repeated forms a larger, more complex environment is coming to exist, only reachable through recollection.  In an attempt to recreate the true essence of a time or place, I am continuously questioning the way I remember things, in hopes to more clearly discern what is true.

Mary F. Coats website