Mercedes grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, within walking distance of the Atlantic Ocean. She is inspired by our connection to the natural world, and to each other. Her love for wild places and adventure has led her to be a deckhand on a pilot boat, a wilderness guide, a fine art and documentary photographer, and a traveler for a year around the Pacific Rim. She began her artistic exploration through photography, and uses her photographs for painting reference in the studio. During a photography fellowship in 2007 on an island off the coast of Maine, she was inspired to begin painting as a way to convey the unique energy present in each place. In 2024, she was an Artist in Residence at The Burren College of Art, where she continued to explore making inks from foraged materials for use in her painting and experimental printmaking. She is moved by the beauty, wonder and dream-like quality that exist in everyday moments, and aims to express these feelings and observations through her paintings. She has exhibited in galleries and museums nationally, and lives and works in San Francisco.
