Thousands of students, preschoolers through post-graduate level. 1974-present

Butler Art Studios, Louisiana: 1974 - 1983. (Art classes for adults & children in traditional realism and crafts including: charcoal, pastels, oil painting, watercolor, pen and ink, 2-D and 3-D design, anatomy, portraiture, perspective, illustration, color theory and application, composition, perspective, value relationships.)
Faculty member at dozens of quilt-related conferences since 1989, including the Pacific International Quilt Festival (CA), The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival (VA), and the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX (the largest quilt event in the world drawing over 50,000 people.) Dozens of topics taught geared to sewing, quilting and wearable art applications include: Art Fundamentals, Color and Design, Glitz Magic Embellishment Techniques, Elegant Embellished Belts, and Wearable Art Design
Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, NM 1992-4, lecture on The Role of Art in Personal and Planetary Healing (Art Department), Color Theory and Application for Fashion and Interiors, and Wearable Art (Home Economics Dept.) A fashion show of students’ work was part of the Wearable Art course. Faculty advisor for The Love for All Mankind/Anti-Apartheid Quilt project at ENMU (1993), now in the collection of the Hon. Nelson Mandela.
Association for Research and Enlightenment and the Cayce-Reilly School: 1985-present. Arts-related workshops and classes for adults & children include the following topics: working with dream imagery in art, the healing power of colors and symbols, the role of colors, symbols and art in personal and planetary peace; the magic of the mandala, the sacred path of the labyrinth, the co-creative process.
Private art lessons/tutoring: 1980-present. For adults & children in traditional realism, visionary art, fiber art techniques, quilting, wearable art, Prismacolor pencil techniques, charcoal drawing, oil painting, sculpture, and a variety of additional media.
Contemporary Art Center of Virginia (formerly Virginia Beach Art Center.) 1985 - 2001. Arts-related classes for adults & children including: art history, traditional drawing and painting, pastel painting, cartooning, sculpture, filmstrip making, calligraphy, stenciling, kaleidoscope design, Sculpey techniques and a wide variety of crafts.
Tour guide at various museums and quilt shows including Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. 1990-present.
Artist-in-Residence program, Arrowhead Elementary School, Virginia Beach, VA: May 1999. Children’s quilt design class.

Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 1988-2002 (excluding 1993-4) Women’s Center sponsored courses in women’s studies.
Jewish Community Center of Tidewater Art Camp, Norfolk, VA: 1986-1990. (Children’s art classes included fiber arts, jewelry design, sculpture, drawing, painting, calligraphy, mixed media.)
Co-authored core curriculum of five post-graduate level courses in Art and Healing. 1995.

Art Production Highlights

One-woman show featured work done over a 30-year period, in a variety of media including charcoal, oil, pastel, acrylic, raku pottery, colored pencil, fiber art. Aug. 9-Sept. 5, 1999, Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach.
Butler’s range of media is wide, from airbrushing vans and cars in the late 1970’s, to her current mixed media visionary art, from traditional still life painting to designing kaleidoscopes. She has also costumed dozens of plays for community theatre, including a production of Godspell.
Several dozen pieces annually, in a variety of media, primarily commissioned works.
Repeat participation in the International Fairfield Fashion Show, the largest designer’s invitational wearable art fashion show in the world. (1987/8, 1992/3, 1996/7 and 1998/9.)
Artwork in collections around the globe, including Norway, Chile, Costa Rica, Canada, United Kingdom, Soviet Republics, South Africa and the United States.
The great-granddaughter of a documented psychic, she offers a variety of intuitive readings, some of which result in a piece of healing art.
Collectors include: Dr. Patch Adams, Dr. Carolyn Myss, Dr. Barbara King, H.H. Swami Satchidananda, The Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, VA; City Hall, Moss, Norway; The Kazakhstan Symphony Orchestra, Kazakhstan; The Leningrad Peace Committee, Leningrad; The Findhorn Community, Scotland; the University of Peace, Costa Rica, the Hon. Nelson Mandela.

Outdoor Art Installations/ Labyrinth Sites

90-foot diameter temporary labyrinth, Chartres design, at Red Rocks National Park, CO; for the Heal the Earth as One concert, June 7-8, 1996.
48-foot diameter permanent patio labyrinth, Chartres design, Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach completed April 1998.
45-ft. diameter permanent rock labyrinth, Classical design, Cedarheart Lodge, Rosendale N.Y., completed June 1999.
Various temporary labyrinths, as well as indoor and outdoor canvas labyrinth presentations.

International Projects and Actitivites

Faculty advisor and designer of The Anti-Apartheid; Love for All Mankind group art quilt, now in the collection of the Hon. Nelson Mandela. 1993.
Designed and developed artwork for a variety of global peace initiatives, including the Leningrad Peace Committee, USSR; the University of Peace, Costa Rica; a grassroots peace organization in Santiago, Chile; Young Storytellers for Peace, the first Worldwide Peace Prayer Day, the Ribbon project, and for Tibetan refugees.
Lectures and presentations to artists, fashion designers and craftspeople in former U.S.S.R., 1987 and 1988.
Arts Advisor/Board of Directors. Center for Improving U.S.- Soviet Relations. Baltimore, MD. 1986-88. Major projects include the First U.S.-Soviet Childrens’ Peace Quilt Exchange Project (1987-88), an historic project chronicled in the media of both countries. Citizen diplomacy trips to the U.S.S.R. in 1987 and 1988 included presentations to fashion designers at the Dom Modi (Houses of Fashion) in Odessa and Moscow.

Writing

Subject or author of over 90 publications. View list

Awards, Grants, Honors

Lifebridge Grant Recipient- received a seed grant of $30,000 for the development of a major art project depicting the divine feminine in multicultural mythology. 1996-1998.
Selected as an International Woman of the Year in 1993/4.
Listed in the World’s Who’s Who of Women, 12th ed.
Listed in 2000 Notable American Women, 6th ed.

Continuing Education

Continuing Education 1979-present. In various colleges, conferences, retreats and private lessons, art-related courses include: macramé, calligraphy, quilting basics, intermediate and advanced quilting techniques, dollmaking, papermaking, paper crafts, ribbon weaving, creating texture with textiles, raku pottery, knitting, painting on silk, jewelry making, mixed-media collage, Oshi-e (a traditional Japanese fiber art), puppetry, mandala drawing (with Judith Cornell), mandala painting (with Paul Heussenstamm), and surface design (for a variety of surfaces) including: stenciling, hand dyeing, stamping, faux finish techniques. Computer courses include Dreamweaver, Illustrator 8.0, and beginning, intermediate and advanced classes in Photoshop 5.5. Non-art courses that have career impact include: comparative mythology, comparative religions, quantum sciences, sacred sites, women’s studies, and dance (including belly dance, sacred dance, tap, folk, and ballroom.) Courses taken with many teachers not mentioned above have also had career impact, including those with: Dr. Lauren Artress, Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, Dr. Harmon Bro, Dr. Don Campbell, Dr. Matthew Fox, Shakti Gawain, Arun Ghandi, Dr. Willis Harmon, Joan Kellogg, Dr. Barbara King, Shirley MacLaine, Carol Ann Liaros, Dr. Caroline Myss, Babatunde Olatunji, Dr. Henry Reed, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, HH Swami Satchidananda, John Anthony West, Dr. Marian Woodman.
Art Academy of Los Angeles, CA. Five-week intensive Masters Program for professionals and advanced artists. July-August 2001.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Selected to attend seminar for educators, July 1999.

Foundational Education

Stevenson Studio and Gallery, Sea Cliff, N.Y. 1972-74. Selected for one of eight positions at the atelier of master of realism, Harold R. Stevenson, a student of Norman Rockwell. Curriculum included charcoal, oil, watercolor, pastel, pen and ink, anatomy, life drawing, still life, portraiture, landscape, illustration and teaching/classroom skills internship.
Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. 1971. New York State Regents Scholarship recipient. Only freshman selected to attend special art course with well-known illustrator, Bernie Fuchs. The Dean of the Art School, Dr. Augustus Freundlich, based on a portfolio review, advised against further study at Syracuse U., as he felt that my previous study at the Stevenson Studio and Academy had exceeded undergraduate offerings at Syracuse. He suggested looking for a more advanced course of study elsewhere, which ultimately resulted in continued study at Stevenson.
Stevenson Studio and Gallery, Sea Cliff, N.Y. 1968-1971. Evening classes, once weekly from Sept. - June and three times per week during summer. Renaissance-style traditional art training focused on excellence included drawing from plaster casts, anatomy, portraiture, figure drawing and painting, illustration, still life, landscape, color, composition, perspective, charcoal, oil painting, pen and ink, pastels, watercolor.
C.W. Post College. Brookville, NY. 1967. Figure drawing class for high school students.

Personal/Family

Born in Queens, New York during the 1950’s.
Raised a daughter and seven stepchildren, all are now grown.
Widowed in 1983.
Hobbies/interests include: mothering, gourmet vegetarian cooking, dancing, classical music, reading, quantum sciences, comparative mythology, comparative religion, dreams, rituals and celebration, interspecies communication, Egyptology, humor, mentoring, and women’s studies.

Biographical Gallery

What’s being said about Meryl Ann and her work

Bibliography of Publications

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