Short Bio

A mischievous student of literature and art history, Mary Boxley Bullington taught English and the Humanities during the first half of her adult life; for the past 23 years she has worked full time in mixed media in her native Roanoke, VA. After finishing a doctorate in medieval lit (Indiana University, 1993), all she wanted to do was paint. So she rented a studio early in 1994 and held her first solo gallery show the following fall. Her colorful work is included in the collections of Virginia Tech, Carilion Hospitals, UVA Hospitals, and the National Institutes of Health.

 “If someone asked me what quality is most fundamental to Mary Bullington's paintings and collages, I would say energy--that life riots through [her] work.” --Marly Youmans, Winner of the 2015 Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction

Mary Boxley Bullington

A native of Roanoke, VA in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Mary Boxley Bullington is a mixed media artist working primarily in water media and collage. She has a doctorate in medieval literature from Indiana University, and taught English and the Humanities for over 20 years. Medieval illuminated manuscripts are among the touchstones for her sense of color and the composition of her narrative pieces

Characterized by dynamic color harmonies and fluid rhythms, Bullington’s work is designed to give viewers so much to see that they must take it in gradually, over time. Her collages are made of what she calls her “dress material”—paintings on paper created to cut up and rearrange. (Colorful scraps carpet her studios and stuff hampers and bins.) Her visual vocabulary draws on eclectic sources, including the art of early antiquity, Modern and Post-Modern painting, and non-Western traditions.

Bullington is a founding member of two Roanoke arts cooperatives, The Market Gallery in downtown Roanoke (2002), and Open Studios of Roanoke (2001). From 2005-2015, she served as Tour Coordinator of Open Studios of Roanoke. Her art is included in collections across the U.S., including the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda), Virginia Tech, Carilion Hospitals, and UVA Hospitals.