Meet Your Mountain – Mary Lee Rybar

First Tuesday ArtWalk:
* February 6, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

Exhibition Dates:
* February-May 2024

Meet Your Mountain – Mary Lee Rybar

Mary Lee Rybar is a multi-faceted artist, encompassing the roles of painter, printmaker, sculptor, and lifelong artisan. Her profound appreciation for handcrafted uniqueness manifests in a diverse body of work, spanning from the abstract to the representational, and across various mediums.

Educated at Kent State University and the American School of Paris, where she earned a BA in English, her journey took her around the world as a flight attendant, fostering her passion for photographic storytelling and cultural exploration.

Alongside her career and family commitments, she founded Hunter Designs, producing hand-painted linens for select retailers.

Recent activities include receiving a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in Printmaking, a fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center and an invitation to Ayatana’s Biophilium, Art and Ecology Research Residency.

Her art has graced the walls of institutions such as the Sawtooth Museum for the Arts in Salem, NC, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, as well as distinguished retail spaces including Williams-Sonoma, Gump’s of San Francisco, Vanderbilts St. Helena, Halls of Kansas City, Chateau Sonoma, and H Frank on the Historic Sonoma Plaza. Her work is proudly represented by Lori Austin Gallery on the Healdsburg Plaza, Healdsburg, CA.

Having spent numerous years in the travel industry, Mary Lee Rybar has now found her artistic sanctuary in Sonoma, California, where she dedicates herself to her craft. Her art continues to draw inspiration from life’s diverse tapestry, providing the foundation for her artful journey.

In her artistic journey, she is captivated by the interplay of line, light, color, and motion within the tapestry of everyday life. She strives to distill these fleeting moments into visual expressions that resonate with viewers. Commonplace imagery and the natural world serve as the wellspring of her creative inspiration, rendering her art as a daily chronicle. Her creative compass is rooted in following her innate curiosity, embracing the creative process, and allowing it to chart her course.

Rotating Art in the Depot Plaza is a program sponsored by the Mill Valley Arts Commission as part of our Art in Public Places initiative with the support of The Depot Cafe and Bookstore, and the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce. Over the course of twelve months, from March 2023 to June 2024, we are featuring work by artists Robb Havassy, Mary Lee Rybar, Mary Edwards, and Amy Cruz. Artworks will be presented in a rotating exhibition installed on the exterior wall of the Depot building, visible at the corner of Miller Avenue and Throckmorton Avenue, in Mill Valley.