Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Numme.
Hi Mary, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started off as an artist at the Maine College of Art and got my in photography. I was really captivated by the art of Mehndi
Henna body art. I decided to teach myself since there was not a lot of artists for me to ask how to use the medium. After the year of traveling and talking to different cultures, I learned how to create intricate patterns and learn how to mix Henna powder. I was excited to be able to offer body art for special occasions for holidays, religious celebrations, weddings, birthday parties and private appointments. I started to leave in my healing arts of Reiki after spending many years working with energy practices and offering my services and hospitals and hospice and private treatments interweaving embodiment with healing body art and tattooing came naturally 10 years later as I got my apprenticeship and became a tattoo artist I started working with cancer patients and doing reconstruction from mastectomy scars and offering women a place to feel safe and seen.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There was not an option for me to go to college unless I got a scholarship as my family lost our home due to high hospital bills for my father at the time luckily, I was able to get a scholarship and my art teacher helped me prepare my portfolio.There’s lots of struggles as an artist and to stay focused to stay dedicated to the Craft. I was also a single mom I worked as an art teacher. There’s lots of struggles as an artist and to stay focused to stay dedicated to the Craft. I was also a single mom I worked as an art teacher and a school teacher part-time before I opened up my studio and making enough money to cover bills and still be a working artist. I also had to overcome endometriosis and some surgeries for an invisible disease that took six years of diagnosis and healing. It also is a hard field to be a woman in the tattooing industry, which has been predominantly run by men and creating a platform for more women artists which is now finally turning the tides.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have been creating Murals across the world, which has been a wonderful thing to do. Not only do I work on skin, but I work on walls, creating larger pieces for homes and businesses and hotels and Airbnb’s. My work can be found in France, Jamaica, Iceland, and Italy. I have done work for healing yoga, studios for women, shelters, recycling containers, and all sorts of platforms where art can be an experience that you are affected by the environment. I love not being able to pinhole myself into one medium but express in lots of different forms from paint, tattooing, healing arts and being an entrepreneur.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Don’t second-guess yourself and don’t belittle your skills to say that you’re not an artist or that you’re not capable of doing great things. Stop being judgmental about the things that you create and just allow them to exist in the world. And don’t allow one person to a point of view on what you think beauty is or art is it just is
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theyeofhenna.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marysmiles
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EvQ9gxCpe/
