Marie Marfia’s Bone-ified drawings are dead on.

The Audience

Marie Marfia’s Bone-ified drawings are dead on.

#MasonCountyPeople.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

LUDINGTON — South James Street is home to several unique businesses, but you may not see anything more unique than Marie Marfia’s Bone-ified Gallery at 307 S. James St. The gallery’s dominant subject are quirky skeleton paintings.

“The skeletons started out as a fluke,” Marie says. “I had picked up pastels and wanted to learn how to use them, so I started a series on belly dancers. After about 50 drawings, I became bored and someone suggested that I started to work in the style of Salvador Dalí.

“So I started drawing skeletons. I went to the gallery where I worked and they sold. I drew 50 belly dancers and non of them sold but I drew five skeletons and they all sold. I was then offered a show and they just kept going and took off on a life of their own (no pun intended).”

Most recently Marie has started offering the cards on signedcards.com, a site that allows customers to create a hand-written message, take a picture of that message and upload it to the site. The message is then placed on a select card and mailed out.

Marie had been an established graphic artist in Ludington for several years before she and her family moved to the Jackson, Fla. area about a decade ago. About 1.5 years ago, Marie and her husband, Steve Oliver, moved back and settled in Sheridan Township near Round Lake.

Her work is featured locally at her James Street gallery as well as Shagway Arts Barn in Hamlin Township along with Starving Artist Gallery and Simple Gestures in St. Augustine, Fla., and The Attic Gallery in Atlantic Beach, Fla.

Her work has also been featured in Art Prize in Grand Rapids.

Marie continues to also work as a graphic artist and is available for freelance and contract jobs. For more information, visit mariemarfia.com, email marie@mariemarfia.com, or call 904-566-4473.