My great-grandmother worked as a fashion illustrator in Boston in the 1920s. I was lucky to be surrounded by her work as a child, and as I developed my own artistic style, I was deeply inspired by her fashion sketches and advertisements.

The daughter of a middle-class family, Marion Smith grew up in the same small town I did––Woodstock, Vermont. At a time when women were not often given the opportunity to receive further education, she was able to attend art school and make a career for herself as an artist. As a graduate of the Scott Carbee School of Art, my great-grandmother Marion drew the models for print advertisements for department stores like C.F. Hovey & Co., Bloomingdale’s and Jordan Marshall Company. Her work was frequently printed in The Boston Herald, The Boston Globe and The Boston Post.

When I began pursuing art as a young girl, her work served as a profound source of inspiration. I was captivated by her glamorous sketches—women with sleek, cropped hair, delicate hats, sleeveless dresses, and tailored coats. Her illustrations embodied the cutting edge of fashion at the time. Although my own practice centers around architecture and cityscapes, I subtly incorporate her influence through the dark silhouettes that inhabit my paintings. These figures echo her fashion illustrations while remaining timeless and undefined. My goal is to create scenes that could exist in any era—free from traffic lights, cars, and other markers of modern technology—allowing the atmosphere and emotion of the space to take precedence.

Despite my great-grandmother passing just months after I was born, I feel that I know her through her work. Just like her, I studied art and was also a young 20-something moving to a big, new city to begin a career in art. I admire the framed pieces I have of hers in my home studio every day.