Mary Lynn Baird grew up on a farm in Nebraska and then moved to Colorado where she taught elementary art for 32 years—27 in Englewood. Being a passionate practicing artist while teaching was very important to her, allowing her students to inspire and artistically form her in ways she would have never imagined. When she retired as an art teacher she knew she wanted to continue her artist journey but also knew she didn’t want to do it alone. That is how Outside the Box Studio came to be. She is most artistically passionate about clay monotypes! It is an intense, technical, and deeply layered process that becomes more beautifully complicated the further you explore. Mary Lynn is a multi-disciplined, mixed media artist, art explorer, optimist, and collector of friends for the sake of art and community. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––“In my work with clay monotype, I seek to explore the interplay between the organic nature of clay and the immediacy of printmaking. The clay surface, with its tactile texture and malleability, offers endless opportunities to create marks that are both raw and refined, spontaneous and deliberate. The singularity of monotypes—a single print pulled from a plate—excites me. The process itself is an act of trust as every mark made on the clay is temporary yet may reappear within the next layer. My work is inspired by mid-century modern shapes that I can elaborate or build upon. I love the simplicity of these shapes and adding layers to complicate and sometimes confuse them leaving the viewer to wonder. I describe my work as mid-mod grunge."