Mary Angelini
Gilberts, IL - United States
Mary Angelini - Fine Artist
Member Since: 03/02/2011
When I was 9 years old, my parents discovered I had an aptitude for drawing and watercolor painting, after which they pushed art pretty hard, to the point where I became burned out around the end of high school. After an eight year stint in the army, and as long a hiatus from art, I began a career as a paralegal. However, there was always a nagging voice inside me urging me to express myself artistically, though a satisfactory outlet was ever elusive.
While I did pick up a camera shortly before having my daughter in 1994, with the advent of motherhood I could neither find the time nor the means to continue with it. But the interest in photography remained and it was not until I went on a family trip to Switzerland in 2008, armed with a feeble 2.1 mega pixel point and shoot, that I caught the bug again and this time have continued shooting ever since.
Shortly after my return, I purchased a point-and-shoot because I initially suffered from a fear being incapable of learning the basic fundamentals of photography. However, I was determined to learn and forced myself to read and reread the basics until it started to sink in. This built my confidence which soon gave way to the purchase of a real DSLR and enrollment in a digital photography program from which I graduated with top marks.
As an adjunct to my training, I try to read as much photography-related material as I can find and follow a number of photography-related podcasts. Self-teaching requires resourcefulness and exposes one to a myriad of different people with different ideas which has not only helped teach me, but has expanded my creative mind to think differently than I might have otherwise.
The subjects I shoot are rooted in my childhood. From the time I was in diapers my parents took us to local natural areas and let us run wild exploring and discovering the world around us. This fostered in me a deep interest in and passion for mother earth and the natural world. So my artistic inclination has always gravitated towards nature, landscape and macro photography.
My work is about capturing what I think is beautiful about our world, whether it is the incredible magnitude of Half Dome or the often dismissed beauty hidden in a withered flower. I look for scenes and subjects that move me emotionally or transport me to a time or place from my childhood and try to capture what I see in the moment, as it struck me when I came upon it. With any luck my work will move others as capturing the moment has moved me.
To see more images from this artist, visit her gallery at: http://www.angeliniphoto.com/index.html
