BIOGRAPHY: Born in Quincy, Mass., Mary Curran Bitner, was raised and educated in Westchester County, New York.  After graduating from The Ursuline School and The College of New Rochelle, she married her U.S. Military Academy Cadet fiance' new Lt. Richard Bitner and began her career as an Air Force pilot's wife and elementary school teacher.  Much of her time was spent raising her two children and teaching school until she retired several years ago.    Although she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature, she always had a very strong attraction to creative pursuits.  Since childhood, she possessed a desire to create beautiful things.  Painting on her own, as a self-taught artist for many years, she gained some recognition.  Her work has been shown and sold in galleries here in the Tampa Bay Area, as well as Key West. Her 3D Coral Reefs are hanging in homes nationally, and internationally, as far away as the Red Sea and Kuwait.  With retirement from the classroom, and more free time, she went back to college and studied Drawing, Painting, and Design at Hillsborough Community College -Ybor where she studied painting and drawing under Steve Holm and University of South Florida.   She is a founding member, Past President and Board Member of the North Tampa Arts League. In 2007, Mary Curran Bitner became the Art Curator of the Carrollwood Cultural Center. The Cultural Center is a Hillsborough County offering for learning and participating in all the arts for all county residents.

ARTIST STATEMENT: I am an award winning, eclectic artist whose work is influenced by my favorite artists, DaVinci, Cezanne, Chagall,  O'Keeffe, Kahlo, Joan Mitchell and Jay DeFeo. With my many years of ballet dancing, I have become  very conscious of line, form, color, music, and drama which I express in my paintings.     Being comfortable painting different genres in a variety of media, I have received recognition for my large oil abstract florals .  Flowers are a favorite genre for me because I grew up surrounded by flowers in gardens grown by my mother, Florence Curran, a master gardener. I dedicate my flowers to the loving memory of my mother, whose name happens to means flower.   Becoming increasingly conscious of painting as a woman with a very  feminine spirit, I am passionate about creating paintings that are relevant to the meaning and experience of being alive in this magnificently beautiful world. Trying always to celebrate the beauty of life and all of creation, I endeavor to create art that lifts the mind and spirit to higher realms to raise our consciousness to recognize that beauty and life are meant to be treasured. Early in my body of work I painted how it feels to be a woman.  Now, I paints with the pure joy of being a woman!