Mary Kamerer was born and educated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1987. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and began pursuing an art career shortly after her children were grown. After studying various art forms such as stained glass, watercolor, ceramics and completing a one-year apprenticeship in goldsmithing, she concentrated on oil painting. Her style is of an impressionistic nature, with liberal use of pallet knives, emphasizing light and shadows, interesting textures and variations. She likes to lead the viewer to see her subjects, whether they are still lifes or landscapes, from a different perspective, evoking a sense of her encounter with that scene. 

Kamerer states about her artwork, “I am embracing the phrase ‘art activism’ in my thoughts as I create my work—hoping that there is a call to action in the viewer, not only in a political way, but in any way that gets my viewer to react and think or feel differently having seen my piece.”