Sally Mara Sturman - Yellow Kind of Day

Sally Mara Sturman

I was born in the windy city and grew up in Connecticut. My art education began at age 5 or so with classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum drawing armor and such. I was in art school at the University of Michigan before transferring to and graduating from Rhode Island School of Design. I moved to a loft in Manhattan by way of Paris where I drank cafe, learned argot, made prints at Atelier 17, painted and never got to the Eiffel Tower. I’m not the Sally Mara in Les Oeuvres Completes de Sally Mara. My parents never heard of Raymond Queneau, so the mysterious double name is a quirky universal unconscious thing. I do read French but not enough to read the book, which sits on my bookshelf getting dusty. This year my paints have traveled with me to CA, Hawaii, the beach and upstate NY, but mostly have remained here while I’ve taken an imaginary road. These paintings chronicle my observations of the farmers markets at Union Square and Grand Army where I sling fish for Blue Moon. Standing behind the counter with the smell of ocean in the air, it’s a twice weekly, highly amusing riot of people, animals, food and weather. Sometimes bizarre, sometimes unexpected but always fun. I’m happiest when it’s sunny, I’m painting, the rhythm revue blasting on the radio and there are no honking horns outside, and I can still imagine that Henry is on his chair and Violet is under my drawing table, peacefully asleep.