About Mary
My mission is to inspire you to create art and live a happier, healthier life.
I work primarily in many different media, from fabric to wool, paint and paper. Variety fuels my creative spirit.
I want to share what I am learning.
I want inspire you to try something new.
I believe that creativity can restore and heal the soul.
Join me on this journey.
Interesting trivia about me:
I love growing plants.
I was a quality assurance technician at a pickle plant.
I paddled a canoe in Lake Erie, across 5 miles of open water to reach an island, and then had to paddle back.
I play the violin.
Dried mangoes and walnuts are two of my favorite snacks.
I grew up in northeast Ohio. We lived on a farm. My parents, who were school teachers, encouraged creativity, particularly if it meant recycling. Paper, pencils, fabric and yarn were always available.
My mother taught me to sew, and by high school I made my own clothes.
My grandmother taught me to knit. Along the way I learned to crochet, embroider, do needlepoint and cross-stitch. My love of painting was inspired early--- by paint-by-number-on-velvet kits.
Graduate school, marriage and family distracted me from art for many years, but then on Ash Wednesday 2000 we had a house fire which turned our family on end. Our sons were in grade school.
While living in a mobile home I rediscovered sewing, having been given an old sewing machine. Stitching saved me. In some ways it was therapy, and in discovering quilting and quilt makers, I had new friends. I found a tribe.
Today I continue to stitch, draw and paint. I hope to inspire you to explore your own creativity with me no matter what you would like to try.
Published Books
Under Glass (Finishing Line Press, 2019)
Moth at the Window: Poetry of G.W. Clayton and Recollections of Indiana (Xlibris, 2014)
Authored Articles
Quilting Arts Magazine “Make a Mug Rug” 2015; “Felting Vintage Fibers: What’s Old is New Again” August-September 2013, p. 22-24.
Contributor Books and Interviews
The Healing Art of Pathology, College of American Pathologists, Chicago 2016, cover art and inside feature article
Fiber Art Almanac: Essays from the American Midwest;The Quilt Maker’s Story, Wildwood Press, 2016
Natural Awakenings, “Community Spotlight: Expressing Creativity with Mary Lachman and Robin McCahill”, September 2010, p. 34-35.
Television Interview
Branford Public Broadcasting with Jan Doyle, 2018
Education
Bachelor of Science in Food Science and M.D.
Art Teaching Exerience
Shoreline Quilters, Branford CT
Quadrille Quilting, North Haven, CT
Clark Memorial Library, Bethany, CT
Levi Coe Library, Middlefield, CT
New Britain Museum of Art with Robin McCahill
ArtsPlace, Cheshire with Robin McCahill
Selected Group Exhibitions
Uncommon Beauty, Roche Diagnostics, Tucson, AZ, 2019
Textile Duo and Local Inspiration, Windham Textile Museum, Williamantic, CT, 2017
Farmington River Quilt Project-Canal Pool 2, ConnecticutRiver Stewardship;
Winchester Center and Barkhamsted, CT, 2016
Shuffle and Shake, Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, Arts Council of Greater New Haven, 2016
Soulful Journey, Windsor Arts Center, 2016
Sacred Threads, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), juried traveling exhibit, National tour, 2015-2017
Selected Juried Exhibitions
Local Color 4: Rails, Roads and Rivers, Windsor Arts Center, Windsor CT, 2020
Local Color 3: Inspired by Science, Windsor Arts Center, Windsor CT, 2018
#IBelieveInWaterbury, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury CT, 2017
Connecticut Women Art Association Exhibition, Arts Center East, Tolland CT, 2017