Mary Ann Volkmann began oil-painting lessons at seven, grounding her work in composition from an early age. She later designed homes and custom kitchens, a practice that refined her sense of structure and detail. Her paintings span large textured abstracts and her signature Encoded Series, where zeros and ones add layers of hidden meaning. Mixing her own paints and experimenting with diverse materials, she creates surfaces that reward close attention. Her work invites viewers not just to look, but to decipher the stories woven beneath each layer.

If you consider the process you use to decipher representation, you will better understand how you construct meaning to art.