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IN MEMORIUM

Mike Mazer

May 17, 1936 - February 1, 2022

It is with much sadness that we announce Mike’s passing after a long illness.

We appreciate the genuine friendship and support afforded Mike by so many, over his long artistic career. Painting brought him peace, and nothing made him happier than when he created a painting that brought a smile and happiness to someone who related to a particular piece in one way or another.

“Mike Mazer of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts is one of the finest Watercolorists, up there with such painters as Winslow Homer and others.”
Larry Bradshaw, Curator, Professor of Art University of Nebraska, 2012 – 13th Annual Realism Juried Online International Art Exhibition

Medical background:

Mike retired in 1997 from a very fulfilling 36-year career as simultaneous Chiefs of Cardiology and Nephrology at several greater Boston area hospitals. He was a National Institute of Health Junior Fellow in Gastroenterology and Hepatology under Dr. Leon Schiff, and graduated AOA from the University of Cincinnati Medical School. While at University of Cincinnati Medical School, Mike was one of only two who volunteered to care for highly infectious patients who could not be admitted to the hospital and needed to be isolated in a separate temporary facility outside the hospital environment. He was the first human volunteer willing to be vaccinated by Dr. Sabin with his oral Polio vaccine as it was in its development stages and was asked to be part of Dr. Sabin’s research team to create an improved vaccine for polio prevention. He was an intern and resident at the Boston City Hospital on the Tufts medical service. Thereafter, he was a Fellow of Renal and Metabolic studies at Boston University Medical Center under Doctors Arnold Relman and Norman Levinsky. Mike returned from active service in 1965-67, having volunteered for the Vietnam War as a physician at a base hospital, and ten years in the Ready Reserves until discharged in 1975 as a LCDR, U. S. Navy, retired. He became a Fellow of Cardiovascular disease at West Roxbury VA Hospital, a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School run by Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital under the tutelage of Dr. David Littman and Dr. Eugene Braunwald including rotations through the Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital. Mike was also one of a three-Fellow team to develop the most popular and effective Littman stethoscope while convincing Dr. Littman not to have it manufactured in China, but in the United States. Mike is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Nephrology. Before retirement, he was an Associate Professor at Boston University and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

He became the first Chief of Cardiology and Chief of Nephrology appointed by the Chiefs of Medicine respectively at both the Cardinal Cushing Hospital and the Goddard Memorial Hospital and developed their first coronary care unit along with a surgical co-director for their first intensive care unit, where in a new environment for caring for all critically ill patients of many different etiologies for example; sepsis, gastrointestinal bleeding, shock, etc. requiring acute hemodialysis (which was the first on the South Shore of Boston), and in coronary care units for patients with acute myocardial infarction (heart attacks) cardiac arrhythmias and congestive heart failure, etc. Subsequently, he was invited by the parent health care group, Caritas Christi, to assess and update all their hospitals around New England while leaving acute trauma centers to the surgical specialties.
Along with engineer, Dick lee and Pamela Harrigan his esteemed echo technologist, Mike successfully initiated a very busy echocardiography lab in Stoughton, Mass at Goddard Memorial Hospital and subsequently at the Cardinal Cushing Hospital in Brockton (now combined as Good Samaritan Medical Center) with another echocardiographic team. Before long, other technologists developed and owned what became the largest American mobile echocardiographic ultrasound company both for local Boston hospitals and private cardiologists which expanded nationally, while making Mike their Cardiac Director. Eventually, it was purchased by Brigham and Women’s Hospital physicians who in turn also made him their cardiac director until it was sold to a German Company.

For more on Mike’s medical career, please follow this link: http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release-service/449661

Art Career:

Mike has been painting professionally since 1993 in both watercolor and oil, having drawn and painted extensively as a child. Knowing he wanted to become an artist, he still has his portfolio with work he did early on, preschool and thereafter.

Being a maritime artist primarily along the New England Coast, he has exhibited with the American Society of Marine Artists in their traveling Exhibitions, to Museums throughout the country; the National Maritime Exhibitions held at the Coos Art Museum in Oregon, as well as the Mystic International Maritime Exhibition; the Copley Society of Art (Boston) National juried Marine Exhibition “Atlantic and Beyond”; and the International Society of Marine Painters. Mike has exhibited with the National Watercolor Society and other national and international exhibitions where over 700 of his representational maritime works have been juried garnering him over 110 major awards. Mike is an elected and/or signature member of 37 national art societies. These memberships include; American Society of Marine Artists; Watercolor U.S.A. Honor Society; Transparent Watercolor Society of America; Texas Watercolor Society’s Purple Sage Brush Society; The Salmagundi Club and Fellow, Maxima Cum Laude, in the American Artists Professional League. In 2017 Mike was unanimously approved by the National Board of Directors of the American Artists Professional League as the first Signature Member elected in many decades, and the eighth Signature Member in the AAPL’s 93 year existence; there are currently over 600 members in the organization and only 13 signature members. To quote Peter Rossi, President, “As a newly appointed Signature Member, you now join a select and prestigious group of fine artists including Emile Gruppe, Frank Herbert Mason, and Frank Reilly.” In 2013, The Cape Cod Art Center established a Master Artist category, and Mike was among the first to be elected to that status. He is a designated artist with the United States Coast Guard where ten of his pieces are in their permanent collection in Washington DC, and an additional commissioned piece in the USCG Historian’s Collection in Washington, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. In 2017, Mike was recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Publishers with their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in his fields of medicine, science and art.
While serving two terms as President of the New England Watercolor Society, Mike established the Society’s first home Gallery since the Society’s inception in 1885 in the Emmanuel Church on Newbury St. in Boston. He was Educational Program Director for 10 years for the Canton Art Association in Canton Mass.

His image of the “New Bedford Whaleman Statue” was reproduced for the cover of the book “A Bold and Hardy Race of Men: The Lives and Literature of American Whalemen”, by Jennifer Schell, published by University of Mass Press in August 2013. Two of his paintings are included in Splash 10, (2008) and a piece in Splash 9, (2006) both published by North Light Books which reflect the works of 100 of the top contemporary watercolorists in America. Mike’s work is also represented in “The Artistic Touch 6” (2014), “The Artistic Touch 5, (2012), and “The Artistic Touch 4” (2010), representing 120 of the best artists in America. He had been invited by North Light Publications to write a book on realistic watercolor painting.

He has exhibited in over 50 different Museums across the country and is in the collection of, as well as having invitational solo shows locally at the New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Cape Cod Museum of Art, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Two of Mike’s paintings were selected from the Coast Guard’s collection in Washington D.C. by guest curator for the Zeeland Maritime MuZEEum, Leendert van der Pool, in Vlissingen, Holland for an international exhibition in 2009 celebrating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s European founding of New York (New Amsterdam). Mike’s work is in many public, private, corporate and museum collections throughout the United States.

Click here for Mike's Complete resume including all awards and shows he has been in

NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Academic Artists Association, Elected Member

Allied Artists of America, Inc., Elected Member

American Artists Professional League, Inc., Elected Signature Member

American Society of Marine Artists, Signature Member

Audubon Artists, Inc., Artist Member

Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Artist Member

Coast Guard Artist Program (COGAP), Artist Member

Eastern Washington Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Georgia Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Hudson Valley Art Association, Elected Artist Member

International Society of Marine Painters, Professional Artist Member

International Guild of Realism, Elected Member

Louisiana Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Kentucky Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Montana Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Mississippi Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Missouri Watercolor Society, Signature Member

National Society of Artists, Signature Member

North East Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Oklahoma Watermedia Association, Signature Member

Paint America Association, Signature Member

Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Philadelphia Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Pittsburgh Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Red River Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Signature Member

The Salmagundi Club, NYC, Elected Artist Member

San Diego Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Society of Watercolor Artists, Signature Member

Southwestern Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Taos National Society of Watercolorists, Signature Member

Texas Watercolor Society, Signature Member,Purple Sage Brush Society

Transparent Watercolor Society, Signature Member

Watercolor U.S.A., Honor Society

Watercolor Art Society - Houston (WAS-H), Signature Member

Watercolor Society of Alabama, Signature Member

Western Colorado Watercolor Society, Signature Member

MIKE HAS EXHIBITED HIS WORK IN THE FOLLOWING MUSEUMS

Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD

Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, VA

Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, MN

Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT

Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, GA

New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA

Channel Islands Maritime Museum (formerly Ventura County Maritime Museum), Oxnard, CA

Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX

Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX

Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA

A.R. Mitchell Museum, Trinidad, CO

Bigfork Art Museum and Cultural Center, MT

Cahoon Museum, Cotuit, MA

Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR

Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture, Delray Beach, FL

Coutts Art Museum, El Dorado, KS

Duxbury Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA

Farmington Museum, Farmington, NM

Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA

Guntersville Museum, Guntersville, AL

Herreshoff Museum, Bristol, RI

Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL

Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, Auburn, AL

Kenosha Public Museum, Kenosha, WI

Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA

Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA

Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME

Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM

Minnesota Museum of Marine Art,Winona, MN

Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS

Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL

Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX

New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, MA

New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford MA

Omniplex Science Museum, Oklahoma City, OK

Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Collegeville, PA

Plains Art Museum, North Fargo, ND

Red River Valley Museum, Vernon, TX

RW Norton Art Museum, Shreveport, LA

Saco Museum, Saco, ME

Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA

Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO

Taos Art Museum, Taos, NM

Texas Artists Museum, Port Arthur, TX

The Haggin Museum, Stockton, CA

Van Vechten-Lineberry Art Museum, Taos, NM

Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL

Zeeuws Maritime MuZEEum, Vlissingen, Holland

Winston Churchill Memorial & Library Museum, MO

COLLECTIONS:

Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

Commonwealth of Mass, Department of Environmental Protection, Lakeville, MA

Marion Art Center, Marion, MA

Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay, MA

Town of Mattapoisett, Harbormaster's Office

New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, MA

New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA

Tabor Academy, Marion, MA

The City of New Bedford, Free Public Library, New Bedford, MA

United States Coast Guard, Washington, D. C.

Mattapoisett Historical Society and Museum, Mattapoisett,MA

PUBLICATIONS:

International Guild of Realism, 13th Annual Exhibition, published by the Sugarman Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2018

"A Bold and Hardy Race of Men: The Lives and Literature of American Whalemen", by Jennifer Shell, cover image, 2013

Artistic Touch 6, Creative Arts Press, 2014

Artistic Touch 5, Creative Art Press with North Light Books, 2012

Artistic Touch 4, Creative Arts Press, 2010

Cape Cod Life Magazine, May 2009; Creative Hands and Minds

Home Gallery Magazine ( COASTAL Life-Southeastern Mass and Rhode Island), Volume 4, Issue 10, 2008

SPLASH 10, Best in Watercolor- Passionate Brushstrokes, North Light Books, F&W Publications, Inc, 2008

SPLASH 9, Best in Watercolor- Watercolor Secrets North Light Books, F&W Publications, Inc., 2006

Contemporary American Marine Art, 2002, 2004, 2011, 2016

Plymouth Savings Bank's Calendar, 2003 representing work from Museums and Art Centers

Marquis Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare

Marquis Who's Who in American Art

Marquis Who's Who in America

Marquis Who's Who in the World

Marquis Who's Who in Science and Engineering

EDUCATION

Mike is a self-taught artist, with additional classical training for many years under Ray Doyle and has also studied under Betty Lou Schlemm, Charles Reid, Robert Wade and in oil under John Stobart, Joseph McGurl and Dimetrius Athas.