Marie Rust Biography and Artist Statement

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BIOGRAPHY & ARTIST
STATEMENT

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the Earth
are never alone or weary of life."

Rachel Carson

Biography

Wildlife artist and photographer Marie Rust is a Southeast Michigan
native whose love of nature began as a child. Hours spent on the
shores of Whitmore Lake taught Marie how to be still and observe
the natural world. Over the years she developed a deep connection
to natural rhythms and to the lives that share our world. A self-
taught artist, she has taken her observational skill and applied it to
her artwork, creating carefully wrought portraits of wildlife.

Now living on five acres outside of Pinckney, Michigan, Marie is a
partner in Bear Track Studios, LLC, a business she started with two
other nature artists with whom she also lives. Committed to reducing
their impact on the planet, they raise hens, have a vegetable garden
and are working to restore the property through invasive species
removal and the re-introduction of native species. She is a member
of the Stewardship Network, Michigan Audubon and the Nature
Conservancy, and does volunteer work with the DNR through their
Stewardship Program.

Artist Statement

“Using colored pencils, ink pens, watercolor pencils, graphite and
other drawing media, and working almost exclusively from my own
photography and field experience, I create finely detailed and
intimate portraits of wildlife. Through composition and cropping my
work is meant to reconnect viewer and subject, a primal connection I
feel has been lost over time. I believe it is important to present these
amazing creatures as individuals in order to remind us
that we are of Nature, and Nature is in us.”