Artist and UW–Madison alumna Mary Gill was featured recently in a story in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Gill earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art education from the School of Education’s Art Department, as well as a PhD from the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is now the owner of Mary Made It Studio, located at 2716 Atwood Ave. in Madison.

The Wisconsin State Journal story, headlined “Artist’s roots in Trinidad bring vibrancy to paintings of humanity’s shared experiences,” describes Gill’s studio, where she sells original paintings and prints, as “the second act of her career” after a life spent traveling between her homeland in Trinidad and the American Midwest.

Gill discusses the artwork she displays in her studio, including many vibrant paintings of “vivid landscapes” from Trinidad and Tobago.

“Everything here has a story. Every single one,” she tells the Wisconsin State Journal. “I keep on going back to Trinidad all the time.”

While much of Gill’s work is tied to her Trinidadian heritage, she insists that it is for everyone, notes the story.

“We are all human,” Gill says. “We feel. We cry. We love. We’re just people.”

On her studio website, Gill explains: “My work is unique and vibrant, showing my love of color and rhythm inspired by my Trinidadian heritage. My style is distinctive, featuring global subjects and cultural themes. Often, my depictions are of people of color, paintings that tell stories with an international reach. I believe that the stories I tell in my paintings are relatable because universally there are similarities in the what and in how we live our lives, often the only differences lie in the contexts in which these things are done. My paintings have a Caribbean context, but the background stories are universal.”