Natasha Mayers

Natasha Mayers has supervised more than 500 murals as a touring artist with the Maine Arts Commission since 1975. The painted utility poles in her town which depict local history were featured in Lucy Lippard’s book, The Lure of the Local. She is artist-in-residence for Peace Action Maine, and was a National Endowment for the Arts Millennium Artist, creating community art in Portsmouth, Ohio. The Ohio project explored local views of identity, values, and sense of place, to demonstrate how involvement in the arts can improve the quality of community life. In 2005 she received the Arthur Hall Award “for an artist whose work, community service and commitment to their craft inspires others around them to reach to their highest potential.”

Natasha was awarded the Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Maine Arts Commission in 1998, the Artists Projects: New Forms Award from New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Zorach scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1976. Her portrait was recently painted by Robert Shetterly as part of his Americans Who Tell the Truth series, with these words of hers:

“We need artists to help explain what is happening in this country, to tell the truth and reveal the lies, to be willing to say the emperor has no clothes, to create moral indignation, to envision alternatives, to reinvent language. We need artists to help us come together and share our voices and build community around powerful issues concerning our roles in the world and our planet’s survival. Compassion must be translated into action.”
(www.americanswhotellthetruth.org)

She has taught students from nursery school to college and in diverse populations: immigrants, refugees, prisoners, the homeless, and the “psychiatrically labeled.” She organized “Warflowers: From Swords to Plowshares,” a 2005-06 traveling exhibit by 44 Maine artists, launching discussion about conversion from a military economy to a peaceful and sustainable one.

In her own painting, Mayers often explores themes of peace and social justice. In her State of War series, by placing images of war onto Maine's landscape, she effectively asks, “How would we feel if it happened here? “An empathetic response,” says Mayers, “requires imagination.”

To see a comprehensive list of shows she has been in, publications, collections, etc. - check out her site at http://natashamayers.wordpress.com/

Check out her artwork stored at http://www.flickr.com/photos/natashamayers/

E-mail Natasha: mayersnatasha@gmail.com