Born in 1945 when the San Fernando Valley was orange groves and dirt roads, Mary E. Carter lived in California for fifty-five years before moving to New Mexico. She majored in art at the University of the Pacific and graduated with a BA in studio art and art history in 1967. She attended Chouinard Art Institute in 1968 and did post graduate work in painting and serigraphy.

For ten years Carter worked as an advertising copywriter doing radio, print and television advertising for corporate accounts which included Sea World, Taco Bell, Bank of America, Kal Kan Pet Foods and Century21 Real Estate.

She took a brief hiatus from advertising to paint from 1980-1986. During that time she exhibited in numerous juried shows including the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators ’82, ’83 and ’84, the 28^th Annual Chautauqua National Exhibition and the Provincetown Art Association Annual Prize Competition with juror Alice Neel. She was represented by Greer Gallery in Texas and Orlando Gallery in California.

She and her husband Gary Priester started their own graphic design firm, The Black Point Group, in 1986 in San Francisco. For the next decade she wrote copy, designed corporate print graphics and created computer illustration for clients which included Ernst & Young, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Intel, and Chateau St. Jean Winery.

In 1997 she returned to her studio to paint full time. She was recently recognized by the director of the American Surrealist Initiative as one of an active group of surrealist painters currently working in the United States.  In 2003 she had a solo show at Arte Loca Gallery in Bernalillo. Her work was also included in several group shows at Katrina Lasko Gallery in Bernalillo and at the Maude Kerns Art Center in Oregon.

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"Monk Chicken"

©Mary E. Carter-All rights reserved

From the New York Times January 1, 1998

Buddhist monks and nuns in Hong Kong begin seven days of prayer and meditation for souls of 1.3 million chickens slaughtered in effort to suppress avian influenza that has spread to humans. 

Carter says:

I heard about all this in my studio while listening to my local NPR station. In a flash, I visualized the image of the Buddhist monk holding the chicken. The chicken had a human face; the monk held her protectively in one arm, his other arm extended in a gesture of blessing or perhaps it was a gesture of “halt”. I painted the first of my monks with chicken paintings right after hearing their story in 1998.

Two years ago I painted a series of Chicken Ladies and last year I returned to the subject of the monk and the hen. The Chicken Ladies are a very popular item during Placitas’ Open Studios event and several of them reside in homes here in Placitas"