Biography

A lifelong native of the Tallahassee, Florida area, Mary Liz was schooled in the Florida State University Art Education/ConstructiveDesign department. She has also enjoyed taking graduate courses in art therapy, believing the creative process is itself regenerative and healing. A comprehensive FSU curriculum including all fine craft and fine art studio courses, made deciding upon one primary medium a perplexing challenge. Mary Liz has worked in wood, clay, metal, fabrics, printmaking and all methods of drawing and painting on myriad surfaces and objects. Always interested in illustration, calligraphy and hand rendered type forms, she completed many personal projects and some for friends along the way. She has worked in the graphic design field since graduation from FSU, and contributed to Kidd Group from 1987 to 2017, serving as Associate Creative Director.

Since grade school, Mary Liz has enjoyed interviewing a subject or customer, and subsequently making a hand drawn and painted greeting card, painting, drawing, wood panel or wall mural with interpretations gleaned from the interview. The collaborative process with the prospective client is a thrilling adventure.The interview process has been used intuitively in her workplace—executing graphic design through print or web—in order to reflect the goals and intentions of clients in the scientific, medical, banking, association and educational realms.

Mary Liz works on children's book illustration projects, whimsical illustrations of people's pets and their residences, and expanding personal work for exhibitions and reproductions locally and through online venues. In 2014, she began a home-based business, MippinToody Handmade, LLC. to make and sell garments, accessories and whimsical objects and artwork. Making lighthearted images or objects from "nothing" is her favorite thing to do.