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.”

 

Copyright 2012 AuSable Artisan Village