I found out about Mary Hanson-Roberts only very recently, stumbling across some of her art while googling "wemic" on eBay. I was amazed to see that she was making wonderful wemic art in 1986, just four years after TSR released the first wemic as an add-on in its 1E Monster Cards Set 3. I would love to know if she was drawing liontaurs before that, or if it was the TSR wemic that got her started.
She was a dedicated part of the furry and SF fandom, often attending conventions and displaying and selling her art. She was a guest of honor and earned awards at many cons, including Tropicon VI (1987); DeepSouthCon 27 and MidSouthCon 8 (1989); Magic Carpet Con, MisCon 8, and Roc*Kon 17 (1993); Baycon '96 (1996); Archon 21 (1997); ConFurence 10 (1999); and Midwest FurFest (2001).
Living in Orlando, Florida, she was very involved with the Oasis cons in Tampa. She was the Artist Guest of Honor at Oasis 1 in 1988 and at Oasis 11 in 1998. She created a tee-shirt for Oasis 28 in 2016, and here she is wearing it! And it features a liontaur!!
Mary loved cats. She often had cat pets. Here's a photo of her with a cat in 2003 (sourced from furaffinity.net). And of course, she put cats — and wemics — in her art. Here are two examples (click to embiggen).
The above is titled "Friends' Greeting." It is the 31st of 50 prints, and was made in 1986. Here is the text on the reverse. I found this on eBay.
The above is titled "Redecorating." It is the fifth of 50 prints, and was made in 1988. Here is the text on the reverse. I found this on eBay.
Let me editorialize a bit ... Mary was just a wonderful artist! Look at the way she poses her wemics. I love her attention to anatomy. Her wemics have a solid heft to them, a reality, and a sweetness. And I have to mention her amazing artistic style, which reminds me so much of old style artwork in fairy tale books published a century ago, like in the tales of Andrew Lang, illustrated by H.J. Ford. Take a look to see what I mean. The same fine lines, beautiful colors, and aesthetic.
Mary was known for her fantasy and "furry" art. She wrote and drew a comic named Here Comes a Candle, originally serialized in Furrlough magazine, later collected and reprinted as a single-volume 215-page trade paperback by Shanda Fantasy Arts in July 2000. She was published in zines and comic collections including Centaurs Gatherum, Huzzah, and Women in Fur, per lambiek.net and wikifur.com. Mary illustrated two tarot decks: the Hanson-Roberts Deck and The Whimsical Tarot Deck.
Mary Naomi Hanson-Roberts died on December 16, 2020, at age 73. Here is a photo of Mary with her husband, Ken Roberts. Here is a picture with a friend. She had a son, Devin Roberts, and she painted his portrait as a little boy, age 4. I'm sure they all miss her. I'm sad that although we overlapped in life, I learned about her too late to ask her about her art.
