Martie Hopper Reynolds

Even though Martie Hopper Reynolds cannot personally share her passion with us, her family would like to insure that her legacy lives on through her Art.

Martie was born in California, raised in California and Idaho and resided in central Arizona after marriage, near the Superstition Mountains. She spent many of her summers in the Northwest, Her favorite place being by the mountains, forests, and ocean on the North Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. Martie had a great love and appreciation for the native cultures, and the natural environment. This is due to much time spent in the outdoors, her extensive travels, and especially her Native American heritage, (her grandfathers were full blood, one Shawnee, & one Cherokee), for which she was very thankful, and proud.

All of this is reflected in her art. A self taught artist for over 30 years, she considered her art abilities a gift from God, and a natural outflow from her Native American ancestory. She worked in many and various media, and art forms. (Oil, acrylic, and watercolor, on canvas, paper, rock, wood, bone, feathers, and gourds). She was a Certified Water Color Instructor at a college level, and taught at resorts and private residences. She also had a degree in interior design. Many of her art pieces, paintings, and murals are in professional offices, commercial businesses, galleries, and private residences. Some have been used in television commercials, along with one of her card designs being featured on the front page of the Southern California Living Section of the Sunday L.A. Times. (Nov. 2001).

The diversity of her art found its way to the hearts of many, and were very successfully sold in such places and businesses as EthnoGraphics Greeting Cards of Santa Barbara, CA., Caravan Greeting Cards of Texas, E-Cards by Microsoft, Macys, Marshall Fields, Bloomingdales, Natural Wonders, the Discovery Channel Stores, Smithsonian Gift Shops, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Tennessee State Aquarium, and several zoos, and arboretums . Two of her pieces of art were chosen for fund raising projects by the Michigan State Childrens Hospital, and the World Cheetah Conservation Fund.

Some of her best selling designs are from her copyrighted series, The 'Ribbits', a caricaturized family of frogs.

Marties greatest desire was that her art would bring happiness and joy to all who experienced it, and people would become more aware of the need to be sensitive and responsive in protecting the fragile balance in the interaction between humans and the natural world. To listen and learn
from those who have gone before us, and pass this knowledge on to those who follow. She always felt that art is a most natural and enduring way to accomplish this.