Margaret is a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest, after having been born, raised and worked her adult life in the Central Valley of California. Margaret initially graduated from college with a BA in English Literature and later returned to college to acquire her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute. She spent her early work years teaching developmentally challenged children and adults until she decided to go back to school and pursuit her long time interest in art.

After receiving her MFA, Margaret began exhibiting her own work and teaching college level art studio and art history courses. Eventually, she was hired for a tenure track position from which she retired four years ago. During her tenure, she taught painting, drawing, printmaking, collage/assemblage, design, mural painting, and art history. Also during this time, she consistently exhibited her own work at various venues in Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago and other areas in the west. Margaret has an extensive exhibition history and has work in the Kaiser Permanente permanent collection as well as many private collections in Northern California.

In their retirement, Margaret and her husband decided to move to the Northwest for their“adventure.” They married in Friday Harbor 30+ years ago and welcomed the change. Margaret enjoys the water and mountain combination and just being in this natural setting, having also grown up in the country as a child. She is fortunate to have a studio space at home where she continues to make art with various media. She creates collages, printmaking, primarily etching and monotype (She is a member of Corvidae Press and is currently on their board), and paint in both acrylic and oil.

Margaret thoroughly enjoys working in multiple media as each has its challenges and the creative result allows her to access different levels and senses of herself. All her work is grounded in and greatly influenced by the imagery of the natural world and our attempts to catalog, measure, control and find our place in this world. Within the images, you will find natural imagery such as landscape, animals, birds, flowers, etc. as well as maps, diagrams, written text, charts, music and other graphic pieces. Layering of all these elements is a huge focus; perhaps a statement about our multiple levels, variety of means of understanding, and the often odd juxtaposition of memory, dream, knowledge and mystery.

See her work online at mwoodcockart.com