In 2021, Mary-Helen Horne retired from her corporate job and moved into a new studio at Kress Contemporary in Ybor City, where she became a full-time artist.
“I feel like I became a serious artist when I moved into the Kress and I started to meet more of the community,” Horne told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I started feeling like I had a specific direction with my work, and I honestly don’t think I could’ve been where I am today had it not been for the place, the people and the guidance that I’ve gotten here at the Kress.”
You’ll find Horne in her studio surrounded by prints on most Third Thursdays, Kress Contemporary’s biggest day of the month. The open-house-style event invites visitors to explore most, if not all, of the studios and galleries in the Kress building. Horne is also a regular participant in the Ybor Arts Tour, a biannual walking tour of Ybor City galleries; the next one happens Thursday, Feb.19.
Horne, who describes her work as “a celebration of the fragile diversity of our natural world,” pays special attention to trees, using a bunch of different blocks interactively to construct large, hand-carved linoleum relief prints.
“[Trees] symbolize to me all that nature is,” Horne said in a 2025 studio visit. “They symbolize our relationship with nature. They operate in communities, we’re finding…they give us the very air we breathe and they don’t ask anything in return. So to me, they’re worthy of our attention.”
In 2025, Horne folded several of her prints into leaves for a large 3D tree she constructed from PVC, recycled hangers and metal wire. Still debuted last spring at “Fresh Squeezed 9.”
For Horne, who remembers hearing about Fresh Squeezed during her first printmaking class, being selected as a Fresh Squeezed artist in 2025 was a rite of passage—a symbol of making it as an artist in Tampa Bay.
“It gave me this sense that I’ve arrived,” Horne told CL.
In 2025, Florida CraftArt accepted Horne into their Emerging Artist Program along with another Kress artist, Lisa Ramudo. The six-month program includes business mentoring, a professional photo session, an artist statement workshop, an opportunity to sell work at Florida CraftArt, and inclusion in the Emerging Artist Exhibition. An easier-to-install version of Still made it into this show, in January 2026, along with several new works.
Horne hopes to create more sculptural work like Still in 2026. You can see her work, along with Patrick Carew’s, in Tempus Projects’ “From All Sides of the Page At Once: a group exhibition of traditional (and not so traditional) printmaking,” through March 19.
SPRING ARTS 2026
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This article appears in Jan. 29 – Feb. 04.