"Free Fall" Watercolor, 15 x 22"

Mary Kostman is an abstract expressionist painter and assemblage artist who delights in leading workshops for people to discover their innate creativity. Her work draws from her experience in the expressive arts (dance and art therapy, storytelling) and the healing arts (tai chi, Feldenkrais, polarity therapy, yoga, meditation). Her art is a source of healing and self-renewal.

She began her art career as a photographer in 1965 and then concentrated on textile art in the seventies through the mid-eighties. Her current work includes watercolor, acrylic, ink drawings and assemblage. She has led workshops for adults and children exploring perception and communication, has directed a community art center, and was a key member in developing the first conceptual art gallery in Montreal. She exhibits in the United States, Canada and Israel. She leads workshops in creativity (Paint Your Dance™ and Paint Your Essence™) for both adults and children. Her studio is at Emerson Umbrella for the Arts, Concord, MA.

Kostman is a member of the Cambridge Art Association, the Concord Art Association and the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA). In 1995 she was the local coordinator of "Jewish Women Uncensored", a national juried exhibition of the Jewish Women Artists Network, a sub-caucus of the WCA.

In 2001, she received Honorable Mention in the Cambridge Art Association National Prize Show for an ink drawing, "Gesture 4101". The show was juried by Maxwell Anderson, Director of the Whitney Museum, New York.

In 2003 she received a grant for a one month residency at the Vermont Studio Center.

In 2006 she received the Juror's Prize for a monotype, "Connections", in the show, The Way We Live, juried by Howard Yezerski, Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, for the Cambridge Art Association.