Westport Book Shop Welcomes Local Artist Mary Scott Himes for May Art Exhibit

May 2, 2025 — The Westport Book Shop is pleased to welcome local artist Mary Scott Himes as guest exhibitor for the month of May at the Book Shop’s Drew Friedman Art Place.  Mary will be exhibiting a variety of prints that explore questions of identity and the female body.

Mary shared this artist statement:  “I started making things again during my treatments for breast cancer in 2021.  Cancer has taken many things from me, but my art practice is what I took from it.  My creative explorations allow me to delve into questions of identity, the ideal standards for female beauty, and the ways in which our self perception can be warped by the expectations of the culture in which we reside — one that idolizes youth and imposes impossible-to-meet criteria about our looks.  In the public realm, married to Rep. Jim Himes, I play a role.  I am a person whom people think they know.  This leads to questions about how we create identity: how the different layers of history and mass culture and personal experience bond together to make us who we are.  My nascent art practice focuses mostly on printmaking because I love the spatial thinking, the variety of techniques, and the collaborative creative process it offers.”

Mary Scott Himes was an editor for atHome, American Homestyle & Gardening, and Colonial Homes magazines.  She co-founded and was the Executive Director of The Unload Foundation, a Connecticut based arts initiative that developed educational and cultural events to raise awareness and drive consensus around issues relating to gun rights, gun use and gun violence.  Mary holds a BA in History/Art History from McGill University and a BFA in Environmental Design from the Parsons School of Design.   

The Westport Book Shop will hold a reception for Mary and her exhibit on Tuesday evening, May 27, 2025, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  Space is limited; please RSVP to the Book Shop by phoning 203-349-5141 or sending an email to RSVP@westportbooksaleventures.org

Mary Scott Himes’ artwork will be on exhibit at the Book Shop through May 31, 2025.  All work on display is available for purchase.  The art exhibit is open to the public during the Book Shop’s regular business hours:  Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays from Noon to 5 p.m.

Westport Book Shop, a nonprofit independent used book store, is downtown Westport’s only source for gently used and antiquarian books, vintage vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and audio books.  It is located at 23 Jesup Road, right across Jesup Green from the Westport Library.

The Book Shop’s Drew Friedman Art Place is an area of the store dedicated to exhibiting the work of community artists year-round, on a rotating basis.  Miggs Burroughs, a Trustee of the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center, and a founding member of The Artists Collective of Westport, curates these exhibits, which change monthly.