Marilyn Narey is a transdisciplinary artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A former teacher, university professor, and author of scholarly books, Narey has recently transitioned to full time arts-focused endeavors including this new enterprise, un/common lines (for poets, writers and community groups), as well as her pulpandpaperworks studio.
       Throughout her career as an award-winning educator and internationally-recognized scholar, Narey argued against labels that “siloed” school subjects with artificial boundaries between disciplines and instead she promoted multimodal literacy and transdisciplinary approaches to learning. It is this same transdisciplinary perspective that she brings to her current creative work: “Although I paint, sculpt, draw, write, etc., I don’t define myself as a painter, sculptor, or poet—I even struggle with the label “artist” because what I do, the media I choose for each work, the form that it takes, grows out of my intense dialogue with the conceptual idea behind the piece. Additionally, that dialogic process is informed by science and psychology in my work with color and visual perception, by technology, as well as my research into history and culture. Going beyond any disciplinary perspective, I ask, what mode best communicates what I am trying to say? How will my compositional choices engage others in conversation with the work? What meanings are embedded in the materials that I bring together? My role as the creative, is to explore the many “voices” of meaning to discern the  essence of a conceptual idea that can be presented in some tangible form– what society calls “art.” It is not about one discipline, but rather about the idea or problem, the conceptual meaning, and that work transcends, goes beyond, disciplinary structures.”
       Beyond her initial degree in Art Education, Narey has been awarded a Doctorate in Education (Curriculum and Instruction), and two Masters (Reading Specialist and Instructional Technology) as well as certifications in Language Arts and Social Studies. She is past president of South Hills Art League, and currently a member of Madwomen (Carlow University), Pittsburgh Poetry Society, Fifth & Wood Poets Collective, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, and Radiant Hall. Among her many community projects, two (Storybowl and Beyond Words) projects will be continued as un/common lines workshops. Her work may be viewed at Studio 117– Radiant Hall Mckees Rocks.