The biography below was written by Mary Ann's husband shortly after her death February 25, 1975 as a piece to be included in the brochure for her posthumous "one-woman" exhibit which her family honored to fulfill her commitment.

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Mary Ann Glatfelter's development as an artist began as a fifteen year old with a good sketching hand. She studied in the early 1940's as a private student in her home town, York, Pennsylvania. Her teacher, an elderly artist who had moved there from Chicago, taught Mary Ann the art of careful brush-work and copying in oils.

Following an early marriage and a first child Mary Ann continued with her private studies until the family moved to New York state in 1950 where she was exposed to the small, excellent collection of impressionists at the Buffalo museum. This was a significant change in direction for her painting. A move to Washington, D.C. a year later placed her in the midst of the national Gallery and the many private collections in the city. She became a self disciplined reading and painting student changing styles and experimenting with different media. Her mentor and constructive critic during these years was Herbert Lee, director of the York Art Association with whom she kept in constant touch through frequent visits to her York home from Washington, and later from Harrisburg, to which the family moved in 1954.

From 1957 to 1961 Mary Ann had the only school-related training of her career, working through the Commercial Art certification with the Famous Artists, Westport, Connecticut. Following this experience she became associated with the Harrisburg Art League, and participated in its weekly sketching workshops there until the family moved again, this time to Emmaus, near Allentown, PA. Her main media concentrations now became water color, ink and wash; she spent a year working on Japanese Sumi technique. In 1964 she was instrumental in forming a local art league in Emmaus and sponsoring its annual shows. Her water color work was handled by private galleries in Allentown. In 1965 Mary Ann received first honorable mention in the state-wide "Old Mills of Pennsylvania" exhibit hung at York College.

After moving to Cincinnati in 1966, she became a student of Paul Chidlaw until 1972, working in acrylic and developing as a colorist and abstractionist. Since 1972 she had been working intensively in her home studio with collage and acrylic, and spent a great deal of time absorbing the art philosophy of Robert Motherwell. In the last two years of her life frequent trips to the eastern coast of Florida profoundly affected the subject material as well as the feeling in much of her recent work.

After refusing several opportunities for one and two person shows during the last three years, Mary Ann arranged for the current one at the Promenade Gallery, her first, just four days before her death.

Constant inquiry and disciplined reading were the secrets of the development of her thirty-year career in painting. Mary Ann applied the technique of method-acting to her painting, immersing herself in the thought and life of a particular artist for a period of time until she could paint in his – or her – "role". She worked through this process constantly with many painters, particularly contemporaries. Her library became extensive – as did the number of canvases, water colors, and sketches, extracting the usable essence of each artist which could be blended with the mind, hand and eye of Mary Ann to finally produce what became her own expression and style.

J. Richard Glatfelter
Forest Park, Ohio
March 18, 1975

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