Mary Ellen Long Papers

Mary Ellen Long was born in Los Angeles and lived in North San Diego before moving to Durango, Colorado in 1981. A multi-media artist, creating for almost 50 years, she exhibits throughout the wide world of art. When she moved from an urban environment to an isolated mountain landscape, she became even more interested in themes documenting nature and ritual. Outdoor site installations placed her in the progression of earth artists that have worked with land forms and natural elements. She chose to intervene in nature subtly, with a primary interest in process and time-influenced projects. For 23 years she developed many works over an 8 acre site adjacent to her studio. For nine years she was an artist-in-residence at Edgmont Highlands Durango, creating over 30 site works along the wild trail in the development. The film "Seeing the Forest for the Trees" documents this work. Her environmenntal work has been seen in sculpture parks and conservancies in the U.S. and Canada. In 2008, she created a large work at the Denver Botanic Garden in chatfield, CO which reflected seasonal change. She continues to make indoor installations that involve environments of handmade paper, natural elements and book forms. Artists' books, editioned and one-of-a-kinf, are an important element in the progression of her land-based art activity through the years and have brought her ideas to a larger audience. Mary Ellen Long has also worked through the years in the collage medium with the book being a primary theme and source of inspiration. Galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Denver, and elsewhere have handled that work. Travel experiences, found materials, and the calligraphic nature of languages have also been of interest. She received BA and MA degrees from San Diego State and has received grants from the Colorado Arts Council. Mary Ellen has been a featured artist at the Center for Book Arts in New York City. Her book art and collage has been placed in collections around the world, such as the Sackner archive, MOMA library, UCSD Special Collections, The Athenaeum in La Jolla, CA, Cerritos Library, CA,Baylor University, Yale University Special Collections, University of Denver, and the National Museum for Women in the Arts. -Sourced from biography in collection