The cozy apartment she shares with her cat, Rafiki, is on the ninth floor. Building management was going to put her in rooms that faced roads and traffic, but switched her to the other side when they found out she was an artist.
Referring to switches, Maurer made a big one at the University of Dayton.
“I started out in English and psychology. I liked it, but it was dry,” Maurer said. “Then I took an art history class. I fell in love with it, and so I took some time off from my major to take a couple of art classes. My parents still aren’t happy about it.”
Happy parents or not, Maurer is doing very well as a budding professional artist. The 2014 UD grad smoothly transitioned from student to working artist.
She says that her two biggest influences were two art professors at UD.
“In the beginning of my art studies, it was Jennifer Rosengarten. Erin Holscher Almazan guided me during my last two years of school and beyond,” Maurer said. “She took me to Detroit for a printmaking conference. So I went from the undergrad life to ‘I can do this, I can be a professional artist.’ ”
Her solo shows and two-person exhibits include: “The End,” Ghostlight Coffee, Dayton; “tylenol & beer,” High Street Gallery, Dayton; “Bakist,” Lily’s Bistro, Dayton; “Consent,” UD, Dayton; and “Conversations of Color,” Color of Energy Gallery, Dayton. She recently had a dual show with Chris Welker and the Welker-Rollins Studio behind Kettering’s Town & Country Shopping Center, and that led to a short show for the two artists at DVAC this past April.
“I used to paint, but now I do figural drawing. I’ve always drawn and painted relationships,” said Maurer. “Last year I had a big change physically and mentally in myself, and I put that into my artwork. It’s kind of scary using yourself as a subject matter.”
When Maurer starts, she spills whatever is in her head onto the canvas in one to two minutes. Her medium of choice is pastel, with some charcoal. Her newer works involve more focus on facial expressions.
“My work is a reflection of the relationships that give focus to my life,” said Maurer, who works for AmeriCorps at Daybreak Dayton. “My line is a result of blind contour and gesture drawings, often layered upon one another. I work to find resolution in artistic chaos.”
Maurer started work early as an intern for the Boys and Girls Club of Dayton, where she co-founded an after-school Fine Arts Program. She received one of the prestigious Yeck Fellow spots at DAI in 2013. She was a painting instructor at Barstools and Brushstrokes, Dayton; a studio technician at U.D.; and director/events coordinator for Mike Elsass at his Color of Energy/Front Street Galleries. She is a member of the Dayton Visual Arts Center, the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors, and the Piqua Arts Council.
Maurer has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Dayton, with a focus in painting and drawing. She was gallery director for Fifth Street Gallery at Stivers School for the Arts last year and will be teaching printmaking there this fall.
About the Author