For the month of October, The Gallery at the Glen Rock Public Library welcomes the artwork of Mary Walker-Baptiste and the poetry of Lou Baptiste. This husband-wife team’s “Painted Poetry” exhibition pairs Mary’s visual arts with poetry written by her husband Lou.
Their collaboration of paintings and poems began with their annual Christmas card, starting in 2004. One year Mary would create a painting, and Lou would write a complimentary poem. The next year, Lou would write a poem, and Mary would interpret it in a painting. They hope the viewer enjoys exploring how their pieces actually do have connections.
Mary Walker-Baptiste received a Minor in Art in her undergraduate days at the University of Saint Mary, Kansas. Upon retirement from teaching elementary children in OH, CA, and Ridgewood, NJ and then moving to Waretown, NJ, in 2006, Mary returned full time to painting. As the Director and Teacher of the Children’s Art Program at the Pine Shores Art Association in Manahawkin, NJ she worked in oils, alcohol inks, collage, watercolor and clay. She continues to learn and utilize new techniques in these mediums while she explores abstract, still life, figures, florals, city, sea and landscapes, working from her own photographs, many of which she takes while traveling. Mary and Lou moved back to Bergen County in April 2022.
Lou Baptiste grew up with an appreciation of poetry. Lou was introduced to the poems of Octavio Paz, the Mexican Noble Prize winner for Literature, and was inspired to write his own poetry. He credits his wife, Mary Walker-Baptiste, with helping him satisfy his long time hunger to write. She was the inspiration for the book he had published at Bookends in Ridgewood, in 2003, entitled At Long Last, Love.”
For more information about Mary Walker-Baptiste and Lou Baptiste, follow @marywalkerbaptiste on Instagram.
