Mary Grassell is a designer, printmaker, painter, and illustrator residing in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, and has spent a lifetime in the diversities of the art field.

As a designer and artist, she is a retired professor emerita of art and design from Marshall University in Huntington WV, having taught graphic design, illustration and bookmaking. While living in West Virginia she was a member of Main Street Studio in Hurricane WV where she had a press and pursued woodblock printing, screen printing, monoprinting, and painting in all media. She also was a member of the Tamarack Gallery in Beckley, West Virginia and Gallery Eleven in Charleston WV.

Her education includes a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and an MFA from Syracuse University. Before she taught at Marshall University, she was with Westmoreland County Community in Youngwood, Pennsylvania. She has always been an advocate of art education for all and has spent 35 years as a professor herself. Many of her students are working across the country and abroad in Germany, France and England.

In her professional life as a graphic designer, she has worked for Studio 2 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Alba House Communications in Canfield, Ohio, and as Art Director at the Gallaher Group in Ashland, Kentucky. Her works included touch screens for the WV State Museum, a display for Kimbal WV 100 Years, and animations for Ohio Canals. She currently has her own free-lance business as Mary Grassell Design. With a thorough knowledge of printing and advertising, she worked across a variety of states as a designer. All this was translated into her teaching.

As an illustrator, she has illustrated many ads and books, including the “Charlie Series” of thirteen books by Huntington WV author Dr. Joseph Touma. She illustrated many works for Alba House including album covers and educational film strips as well as books.

As a professional artist, her works are included in the collections of West Virginia Historical and Cultural Center, the Erma Byrd Library at the University of Charleston, the Drinko Library at Marshall University, and other private collections. She has exhibited regionally and internationally, including at the Southern Ohio Museum of Art (Prize winner), Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg, WV, Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, West Virginia Juried Exhibits (Prize winner), Clay Center in Charleston, WV and Tamarack in Beckley WV among others. Also, she has had solo Exhibitions at Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Frankenberger Gallery at the University of Charleston, Ashland County Community College, and Rio Grande University in Ohio. She also has been a member of the Pen Women Society.

Currently, she is retired in Pennsylvania, the state of her birth. Here she is a member of the Foundry, the Mountain Valley Plein Air Painters, the Franklin County Arts Association, the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, and the Adams County Art Association. She exhibits at the Foundry, and has also exhibited at Gettysburg College, Wilson College and with the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society. In her retirement, she continues to paint, make prints (woodblock, linoleum block, monoprint, screenprint), make books, and continues to exhibit.