Women of Ohio

See a list of all the winners and commended artists here.

Today we offer a warm welcome to Marcia Shubert, an artist based in southeast Ohio. She has resided here since 1977. Trained in Photography, she often works in mosaics and rug hooking, and finds other unusual applications for creativity. Having taken a workshop in Ravenna, Italy, she found that paper mosaics more closely related to her photography and painting skills. 

Marcia explained that her portrait work has evolved over the years, and she has found herself focusing on women, most often women who have made an impact, but not necessarily famous. She looks for personalities that are historical, mythic or alive today. Sometimes they are friends or other times simply people that crossed her path in life or stood out in some interesting way. 

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

My piece portrays a woman friend of mine, Mary Ann,who is exemplary in many ways. I think of her as my ‘handy dandy buddy’. On this particular occasion, she was rescuing a Barn Owl from the belfry of a local church in Amesville, Ohio.

Barn Owls are in the genus Tyto and are one of the most widely distributed of owls in the world. The oldest know American Barn Owl lived in Ohio and was reported to be at least 15 years 5 months old when it died. Barn Owls are one of Ohio’s most threatened native species.

The other woman who I am honoring with this piece is Genevieve Estelle “Gennie” Jones. Born in Cleveland, Ohio on May 13, 1847 and raised in Circleville, Ohio, she is known as an American Scientific Illustrator and Naturalist. Often considered “the other Audubon”. Her book, Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Unfortunately, Gennie would only complete 5 of the colored illustrations before she died of typhoid fever at the age of 32.  Her family went on to complete her book. The American Ornithologists Union named her as someone who “left their names indelibly impressed in the records of Ornithology”.

As stated by Leslie K. Overstreet,Curator of Natural-History Rare Books at the Smithsonian Institute Library. “The Smithsonian Institution Libraries is fortunate to hold two copies the the Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, now affectionately known as simply “The Nests and Eggs”. For over one hundred years, ornithologists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and in similar institutions around the country have consulted the book’s meticulously detailed and scientifically accurate illustrations to identify nests and eggs in museum research collections, but few beyond this specialized group even know that the book exists”.

Gennie did not live long enough to fulfill her dream, but her illustrations live on and we are fortunate to have this beautiful compilation of work.