Mary Engelbreit - Wit and Whimsy

(Photo by Rich Saal)
With a range of licensed products that stretches from dinnerware to screensavers, a string of successful retail stores, an award-winning magazine, 150 book titles in print and hundreds of millions of greeting cards sold, the most apt description of artist Mary Engelbreit may be a line pulled from one of her well-known greeting card designs she truly is "The Queen of Everything." Mary’s unmistakable illustration style imbued with spirited wit and nostalgic warmth has won her fans the world over. People magazine has dubbed her a Norman Rockwell for our times.

Mary’s passion and dedication to her drawing has never wavered, and although her company now employs a small staff that "reformats" her art to make it appropriate for a myriad of licensed products, Mary herself still hatches every concept in her head and draws every original illustration with her hand.

It’s an amazing degree of success for any artist, but even more remarkable considering that it all began with a single-minded young girl who decided at age 10 that she was going to be an artist. And while Mary Engelbreit continues to enjoy world-wide success, that same girl still sits at its core, grown up now, but still drawing her pictures with the same sense of wonder, imagination, and enthusiasm.

When Mary was young, people told her that being an artist was not a realistic way to make a living, but Mary Engelbreit was never one to be easily discouraged. "I believed in myself," she says, "and now I’m living my dream."