Laredo Artist Mary Quiros' Book-Signing Event Thursday
Acclaimed Laredo-born watercolor artist Mary Elizabeth Leyendecker Quiros will visit Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) for a reception and book-signing for her recently published biography, Mary Quiros Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. in the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.
The event, part of the University’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, is free of charge and open to all.
The 240-page full-color book (Herring Press) traces the artist’s journey from garden art shows held in her Laredo yard to worldwide galleries and exhibits from Japan to New York, San Antonio to Colorado and beyond. It includes some 200 color plates of her vibrant art.
Until 1977, Quiros painted in oils and acrylics. She then found fluidity of expression in watercolor. She has since studied and been influenced by various teaching masters, and finds daily inspiration in the nature, form and music of her world.
“I have found that water media has endless possibilities by using different methods of interpretation. Experimentation with ink and wash, collage and dry brush allows me plenty of flexibility in the creative process of developing a work of art,” she has said.
Writing about art in the new book, Quiros observes, “Art is self-expression that is deep inside you that comes to the surface when you are painting. It is yours and nobody can copy that. I am painting more today than ever before with the freedom to create what I want. I have to paint. It is my happy place. It is an important part of my life.”
Accepted into juried shows in Texas, Colorado, South Carolina, Missouri, and Kansas, Quiros has displayed at the Contemporary Museum of Art in Nigata, Japan and has been featured in the Texas Watercolor Society publication, Fifty Years of Excellence, the summer edition of Watercolor Magazine, and was published in a North Light Book for artists, Splash 8, among others.
She had a solo exhibit at TAMIU in 2005 and was part of a group show, “Deep in the Heart,” in 2011 alongside Cristina Zorrilla Speer, Janet Eager Krueger, Marilú Flores Gruben and Miki Rodríguez.
The recipient of over 30 awards for her work, she is a signature member of the Texas Watercolor Society with Sage Brush status, Watercolor USA, the Kansas Watercolor Society and the Houston Watercolor Society.
She and husband, artist Evan Quiros, maintain studios at their home in Fayetteville, TX. Evan Quiros’ monumental stained glass window depicting K’inich Janaab Pakal, the legendary Mayan ruler of Palenque, hangs in TAMIU’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts foyer.
For additional information, contact the University’s Office for Institutional Advancement at 956.326.2177.
Throughout 2019-2020, TAMIU is celebrating its 50th anniversary and its 25th anniversary at its north Laredo campus. A dedicated website shares the University’s transformation from a hybrid upper-level university to a full doctoral degree-granting University. It traces the University’s history, shares its impact in personal stories, and includes a calendar of Anniversary events and more at tamiu.edu/50.
For additional information, contact the TAMIU Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at 956.326.2180, email prmis@tamiu.edu, click on tamiu.edu or visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 268.
