LIve well and thrive with good design

Mary’s multidisciplinary background as an artist and an interior designer, who received a Bachelor of Fine arts, an Interior Design degree, and graduated from the Executive Program of Sustainability from Presidio Graduate School, is inspired by her love of creating a “sense of place”.  She worked at multi-faceted design firms and on thousands of projects from homes to hospitals to being part of the team that designed the interior of the International Space Station for NASA. Her father and grandfather were rocket-scientists who ignited her love of outer space, while her maternal grandfather was an architect - she was inspired by both earth and outer space design from an early age. Mary incorporates Mother Nature’s beauty by bringing the outdoors indoors with color, pattern, art, and furnishings. Bringing nature indoors, often referred to as biophilic design, incorporates live plants, natural materials as wood and stone, and maximum natural light to create calming healthier and happier living. Research indicates that bringing nature indoors can reduce cortisol levels by up to 21% and increase productivity by 15%. It acts as a natural calming element that enhances mood, reduces stress and boosts creativity. Mary’s lifelong mission is to bridge art, aesthetics, design, and architecture to connect people to themselves, to others, their community, and to their interior spaces. Creating a cohesive look and feel, a space that works for their functional, financial, and practical needs for their specific stage in life for clients is a high priority. Decades as a real estate agent, flipping houses for herself and clients, working and traveling locally and globally has informed and ignited her curiousity and interest in knowing how others thrive in their homes and lives. Teaching art to kids, college students at the Academy of Art University, watercolors to adults at Cavallo Point, and art to grammar school children in Africa expanded her knowledge of learning from cultural to personal choices and needs in creating environments for many ages and cultures. Her love of creating clean, uncluttered interiors to work better in has been a commitment with her own dyslexia and learning differences she both accepts, is partly grateful for, the creativity it offers, yet understands in herself and others how difficult focusing and learning may hinder self-confidence, etc and the how important is the need for an orderly home/work environment. Right-sizing 14 times as a single parent with her children taught her resilience, patience, making smart, quick decisons built her confidence. Mary loves to travel, play tennis, and spend time with her adult kids, Lizzy and Alex, who work at Salesforce.org and The Presidio Trust in forestry in San Francisco. Working in the community and playing on the USTA team at the California Tennis Club brings happy connection.