Mary Obering

Obering was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1937. When Obering was a teenager, she visited Italy for the first time - the formative trip introduced her to art and Renaissance painting, an experience that Obering says "was always in the back of [her] mind."

Obering received her BA in psychology from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia in 1959. Later that year, she attended graduate school for psychology at Radcliffe College, studying under noted behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner, who taught at Harvard University at the time.

Obering then moved to New York City to work for CBS, where she studied at the Art Students League. In the mid 1960s she moved again, this time to Denver with her husband and young daughter and received an MFA from the University of Denver in 1971.

Obering began in sculpture, but soon moved into painting. Her first paintings were Color Field paintings, inspired by Mark Rothko. Obering continued to work in abstraction, while incorporating techniques, such as gilded wood panels, that are reminiscent of early Italian art. Critics have also described her work as looking like "an exotic form of sculpture."