Mefore Aday
About Me
Curious what my name Me-fore A-day really means?
Born in 1985 as Mary Aday, to a poor, uneducated, loud family in North Mississippi.
I consider myself a neglected over-achiever. Using drawing as a way to gain attention in my large family,
I drew like my life depended on it. What started out as a desperate cry for love and admiration, my creativity soon became a comfortable way of dealing with the traumas of my childhood.
Art became my coping mechanism.
Becoming a successful artist with a strong unique voice became my inspiration for being.
At eight years old I decided to pursue art as a career. I have never had any other pursuits.
The idea of having a pseudonym, also appeared early, inspired by the great Dr. Suess.
Both, Dr. Suess and Bob Ross were my only artistic influences at the time, their careers made being an artist seem plausible and non-glamourous.
My pseudonym is my statement about climbing my white trash ass out of poverty and pursuing the creative lifestyle of being a full-time fine art maker. AKA a Professional Artist!
Me in the Forefront of my family, the Aday's. Me fore A Day.
Besides my giant, hilarious family, I am inspired by the Abstract Expressionists and the Surrealists and their search into the depths of the unconscious mind. Being the oldest and only girl in a family of all boys, being bold has always been my nature.
Both my parents have a lot of siblings, so I have a copious amount of cousins. I was surrounded by lots of excitement as a youngster, not all of it was healthy commotion.
During my freshman year at Memphis College of Art, I discovered my passion for clay. I studied Ceramics with an emphasis on hand building and sculptural techniques. I was always searching for my unique voice using the figure as my favorite subject.
In 2005, I transferred to Portland, Oregon and studied at Oregon College of Art and Craft. Supporting myself through college with jobs as an artist assistant and teaching assistant has also helped me hone my sculpting, mold-making skills, and production skills.
I left art school after 3 full-time years, to go down the traveler’s path. I have never regretted the money saved and the experienced gained.
Leaving Portland with almost nothing, to hitch-hike 7,000 miles all over the U.S and Mexico, I eventually returned to Oregon and gladly settled back into a rural existence for all of my twenties, where I made my home in the lovely little beach town of Pacific City, Oregon.
In 2019, I moved back to Portland to pursue my art career in a more vibrant art community.