Brook Maher

Brook R. Maher has been working from her studio in Peekskill's Flat Iron Building for over 15 years.  Her current focuses are colorful portraiture and mosaics, including private and public installations.  She cheerfully tackles work on commission. "Whether I portray people, domestic objects, animals or buildings, my subjects tend to inhabit a shallow picture plane in which everything compatibly jostles to occupy the crowded foreground.  My love of bold color, line and shape as well as intricate, fabric-inspired patterns, gives my work a graphic quality.  Stylistic influences include Japanese prints, European and American artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, medieval illuminations and tapestries, 20th century African-American artists, "primitive" and "folk art" designs and textiles from around the world.   There is always an element of story-telling to my art." Ms. Maher recently designed, worked on and acted as artist/consultant on an 8 by 24-foot mosaic mural at Walter Panas High School in Cortlandt Manor, NY.  She has also created mosaic planters for South Broadway in Yonkers.  Peekskill's Riverfront Green features a mural of the Hudson designed by Ms. Maher.

B.A., MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE, MIDDLEBURY, VT., with Honors in English.  Ms. Maher has continued her art and cultural education through work and study on her own, with heavy reliance on museums and local libraries.  In addition she has taken workshops in mosaic, botanical drawing,assorted needlecrafts, photography, print-making and sculpture, among others.