613 Eaton Street Key West FL 33040 305.293.8822 open 10-5, Mon-Sat
mosheafl@earthlink.net

My name is Mary O'Shea. I grew up near the port town of Portland, Oregon. I then moved to another port town of Honolulu, Hawaii, when I was 25 years-old. I then moved to yet another port town of Key West, Florida at age 38. I've been here eleven years now. I seem to need to live near the water. My art form, fusing glass, is like the water...the texture, the light it reflects, the shimmer, the depth and shallowness, the movement, the rhythm, the continually changing color, and the wonder of what's beneath the surface.

My experience/experiment with glass is not a planned one. A tiny fluke of a miniscule 4-day glass class in Portland, Oregon 25 years ago. Pure luck. It found me. I've been making my way in this world of glass for 25 years now. My daily glass experience or 'meditation' I call it, moves quickly like a river current...I tap into and flow with it until I'm spent. My feelings of that daily drift in time are captured in the finished piece.

Since I live near the water, I've become my environment...a Great Blue Heron one day, a White Egret another day, or a Goliath Grouper fish the next. I become the anima of each piece and rejoice when the glass has cooled so I can invite people in to see the wondrous nature of the Florida Keys.

I've been documenting, like a biologist the fish, birds, water and people of the Keys for the last eleven years. I believe artists reflect their environment. I always try to do the Keys justice with my interpretation.