To Purchase Her Work:

Simply stop by the Gallery, or call to reserve or order a piece below! We can be reached at 724-238-2310.

"A Little Piece of Gram's Grape Arbor" by Mary Ellen Raneri, Latrobe, PA. Felted wool mounted on painted cradle wood. 14 x 14". $210

"The Turtle and the Pond" by Mary Ellen RAneri, Latrobe, PA. Felted wool on batiked cotton fabric, mounted on painted cradle wood. 11 x 14 x 2". $180

"Starfish, Shells and Seashore" by Mary Ellen Raneri, Latrobe, PA. Wool, watercolor, and shells framed and under glass. 5x7". $125

"I Wish I Was Under Gram's Grape Arbor" by Mary Ellen Raneri, Latrobe, PA. Felted wool embellished with paper/clay bumblebee, mounted on painted cradle wood. 18 x 24 x 2". $250

"Rocky and the Dragonfly in the Magic Forest" by Mary Ellen Raneri, Latrobe, PA. Felted wool and dragonfly with silk wings, mounted on beech wood. 14 x 14 x 1". $180

ARtist STatement

Mary Ellen Raneri is a graduate of Seton Hill College, with a master’s degree from Purdue University. She taught French and Writing Workshop for 30 years and taught composition at a nearby community college. Published in Reminisce magazine and NEA’s, This Active Life, Mary writes a monthly column for Hometown magazine. After she retired from public school teaching, Mary studied art at Westmoreland County Community College, and received her Associate Degree of Fine Arts in Visual Arts in 2022 from that institution. She enjoys working with textiles, watercolor, and oils. In addition, she and her late mother, Lucy Pollock, began the Baking with Lucy live-streamed Facebook cooking show in March 2020 and co-authored the cookbook, Baking with Lucy in Her Cozy Kitchen: A Collection of 222 Recipes. Mary authored “Homegrown Memories: A Collection of Stories and Recipes with Love from Lucy,  Mike and Mary."

"My art is a visual memoir. The remembrances of my mother, my grandmother, my family, and my childhood all make up the collection of work I have produced in fabric, watercolor and oil.

These days, I often work with cotton, silk or roving wool. I dye my own fabric, usually from repurposed material or used cloth and doilies. Some of my projects are quite large and are sewn by hand. Typically, they reflect a personal experience or have a message for women. I particularly enjoy dying cloth and batiking because it reminds me of childhood summer projects I used to do with my mother. My roving wool creations are very organic and focus on plants and scenes from my mother’s garden and my childhood. I especially enjoy constructing 3-d work with roving wool and silk on top of a 2-d background. It’s sort of like a soft sculpture with wool and fabric.

When I reflect on my art, I think of my mother so much. She taught me how to sew, to paint, and to create things out of pieces of fabric. She taught me everything she knew. My art reveals her priceless lessons.

When I paint, I gravitate to watercolor or oil, and I enjoy doing portraits, especially of my mother and my family. I cherish the scenes and objects that were part of my childhood. Gram’s old grape arbor frequently is represented in my art using different media. Memories of blueberries, farmland near my home, fresh vegetables from our garden, and sewing doodads all find a place in my creations."