At Home with Mary Koski: Artist, World Traveler, Lover of Fairies

By Catherine Tarleton

In the Waimea home of artist Mary Koski live flowers in windowsills, in bottles and pots on cupboards and table tops. There are two overstuffed puffy cats in the chairs, and smiling children framed on every wall. And fairies, flickering just outside the corner of your eye. We have tea on a tray—cups and saucers, tinkling spoons, little cookies. How better to call the fairies? They twitter around my head with memories of my grandmother, and that first cup of tea long ago, rich with milk and sugar. Certainly Mimi’s house had fairies too. But that’s not this story.

Mary and her next-door neighbor, who also happens to be her famous artist daughter Kathy Long, sit with me just off the bright kitchen, where light twinkles in and plays among the flowers, tea and spoons. These two women have obviously spent their lives as each other’s biggest fan; they finish each other’s sentences; they stir and sip and smile together.

“I never wanted to be a nurse, a teacher, or any of the other things other little girls wanted to be,” said Mary. “I just knew I was going to be an artist.” Born in San Diego, she demonstrated exceptional talents in music, dance and art from a very young age.

“Mom started out in dance,” said Kathy. “She was a ballerina; she danced on point at 7 years old. And she played violin with Santa Barbara Orchestra.” Art was the bliss Mary chose to follow. She began as an art major at the University of California at Santa Barbara, but only attended two years. “I was going with a boy that my parents didn’t want me to marry,” said Mary. “So I said, ‘Well, if I have to move, I want to go to Mexico City.’ I just knew that they wouldn’t let me do that.”

Her parents surprised her, however, and it wasn’t long after she arrived at Mexico City College that she met Oiva Koski, who was working at the Finnish Embassy. He had been with the Finnish Embassy in Berlin during World War II, when he got the idea to buy a boat and sail from Norway to Mexico. Someone sank it, and he lost everything, but without it, and a spirit of adventure, he would not have met Mary.

“We were at the bus stop,” said Mary, “And it was Christmas time so the busses were very crowded and there were only two seats available. We talked. He spoke a sort of ‘Finnglish,’ but he was a sweet young man with extraordinary IQ.” For Mary and the tall, blonde, blue-eyed Finn, it was love at first sight, and for the next 60 years, theirs was a romantic adventure played out around the world. “We had a lovely marriage,” said Mary. “We had more fun than anybody… he just had itchy feet.”

After a couple of years in Mexico, and the birth of their first child, Oiva decided to move the family to Brownsville, Texas, where his parents lived. From there, his itchy feet took them to California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and across the Atlantic Ocean. In Europe, Mary enjoyed painting in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Scandinavia. “I loved living in Liechtenstein,” said Mary. “We were on a mountainside… just above the cloud level. And some mornings, it was like somebody poured a bucket of gold down the mountains.”

Mary would work, painting portraits, miniatures, still life and landscapes, wherever they were in the world, now as a mom of two boys and a girl. “I would be dispensing juice with one hand and paint with the other,” she said. “I met the nicest people doing portraits. You spend a little time with people, you’re with them several days or several weeks and you form a relationship.”

“We moved 36 times before we bought this house in Waimea,” said daughter Kathy, “And we always went to fascinating places… As kids, we were used to it. I loved my childhood. We had a good time; we were a good family together, a very creative household.”

In 1983, Mary and Oiva, Mary’s mother Bertha Irby (a distant relative of Lady Godiva, according to Kathy’s research), Kathy and her husband Bertil Long and their daughter Megan, moved to the Big Island.  At the age of 78, Oiva created a comfortable family compound with a shared garden yard that is inviting to all, including fairies.

Perhaps as a result, Mary is the author of four books about fairies, including three volumes of the popular “Stowaway Fairy” series, and “Fairies in My Hat.” For over a decade, Island Heritage published her “Children of Hawai‘i” calendars, which have become collector’s items. She also created a little book of paintings and poetry called “Tiny Treasures” and illustrated the “Little Princess Kai‘ulani and Her Garden by the Sea” by Ellie Crowe. Many of her paintings grace the corridors of Kapi‘olani Hospital for Women and Children.

Amazon.com describes her work as “a celebration of Hawai‘i’s children, set against their tropical island home and depicted in luminous paintings…Koski reveals a delight and fascination with the subtleties of the human face and the challenging interplay of light and shadow. Working in the classical style of Flemish masters like Vermeer and Rembrandt, Koski creates light and life that seem to glow from within the painting.”

Of herself, Mary says, “For years I painted still-life, beautiful objects, and portraits of dignified business men and lovely ladies. I didn’t really mean to become a painter of fairies and children, but they captured me with their innocence and charm, their delight in life and, of course, their incredible beauty.

“Ultimately, I really didn’t have much choice.” ❖

---

Mary’s art is available for purchase. Please inquire using the contact form.

Her work is also available at Gallery of Great Things in Waimea, Lavender Moon in Kainaliu, Dreams of Paradise in Hilo and other galleries.

Children’s books by Mary Koski include: The Stowaway Fairy in Hawai‘i, The Stowaway Fairy’s Volcano Adventure, The Stowaway Fairy Goes to Japan, and Fairies in My Hat. All are available at local booksellers.

Contact writer Catherine Tarleton at catherinetarleton@gmail.com