Mary Sterner Lawson

An exhibiting artist in Georgia and Florida since the mid-eighties, Mary Sterner Lawson works and plays in watercolors, pen and ink, and acrylic, clay, graphite, colored pencil, Sumi-e and ink.

In July of 2011 her paintings and clay work were both displayed at Tallahassee’s main library. An avid quick-portrait-sketch artist, Lawson honed her skills in long academic meetings and the products of her pen were scanned into her university’s archives. Months spent in Finland and the Netherlands, two Fulbright-Hays month-long programs to China and Brazil, and extensive travels in and outside of the US have provided subject matter for scores of drawings and paintings. Travel-art and editorial abilities merged when she illustrated and edited Terry Breen’s recent guide books to Antarctica and Alaska. She also has spent time editing a book written by Florida Highwayman artist Robert Butler, and is currently working on illustrations for Terry Breen’s upcoming guide to Panama. Work in the fields of community history, inspired by reception to a painting of hers, led to the 23003 publication of her book, June Bugs Grocery and the Cornfield Jook: A South Albany Oral History. As an undergraduate, she could not decide whether to major in art or English. Then, a love of literature led to a PhD from Bowling Green State University on Ohio. Now retired after being an English professor at Albany State University from 1973-2001, she has time to pursue her love of art.