“I’m doing this big commission for someone right now,” artist Mary Stengel says, pointing to a large landscape painting on an easel, “I’m lucky to have a number of commissions at the moment. I’ve never not wanted to be an artist working for myself and if I don’t make it, I will keep on creating. It’s in my blood.” She’s dressed in a comfortable t-shirt, hoodie, her favorite jeans, and slip-on Vans — the perfect casual artist outfit.
We were on a field trip to Mary’s studio in a San Francisco warehouse. After showing us around the space with over 50 artist’s studios, we sat down to talk everything life, love, and art. She had already pulled out some of her basket heart prints and spunky stationery, excellent gifts for the Month of Luv!
As a painter and printmaker, Mary is always experimenting with new techniques, but she has acrylic paints, oils, varnishes, and brush cleaners that she stands by. She has a preferred pale for painting portraits and a perfect pink for painting rosy cheeks.
Mary is from a creative family. Her dad is a writer and has done a lot of odd jobs over the years. “Growing up in Nashville he did reviews of cars and guns for bread and butter money, but really he’s a historian. Right now he’s really into translating books from Welsh,” she says. Her mom is a dancer who taught jazzercise while she and her two younger sisters were growing up.
Incredibly charming and newly engaged to the man of her dreams, the talented artist seems to have it all figured out. But she insists that she doesn’t plan anything. “It’s fun and scary to be so spontaneous, but I think I’ve landed on my feet, for now at least,” she says, laughing.
“I was a lost soul after college,” she says, “I was dating the wrong guy and working the wrong job in the heat of Texas. The only fun thing I was doing was working as a cocktail waitress at a Blues club so I was able to save some money.” She took off for Europe for three months, visiting all the art she had studied in Art History classes and studying at the Parsons School of Design in Paris.
Mary’s friend called her while she was touring Europe and asked if she wanted to move to San Francisco with her. Mary had heard that San Francisco had a small, but vibrant art community so she agreed to move without even thinking about it. Two weeks after returning to the States, Mary found herself in San Francisco.
Fast forward a year and the friend she had moved to San Francisco with had decided to go back home. Mary stayed on and met her now-fiance on a ski trip to Tahoe. They moved in together after dating for four months and after a quick courtship filled with great gifts – from robes to radios to Rosetta Stone and a monogrammed jewelry box – her fiance gave her the gift that takes the cake: an engagement ring. They are now in the middle of planning their wedding, which will take place next October in Nashville.
“We are doing a Southern wedding with barbeque and soul music. Planning a wedding isn’t as hard as one thinks,” she says, “I just know what I want.”
This will be Mary and her fiance’s second Valentine’s Day together. “We are going to Hawaii February 19th so we are calling that Valentine’s Day. As for the actual night…maybe that’s something I have to plan,” says Mary.
“Maybe this year I will cook a really good dinner with my Cuisinart griddle or maybe we will do something off the wall like bowling!” she says. Mary’s not much of a planner, but with such great Valentine’s Day recommendations for tie clips, champagne, chocolates, and fun books — we are pretty sure she will come up with some spectacular. She always does.
Luvocracy Stories 