So much of creating art is a struggle to be seen or heard--to give birth to something that has a life of it's own--something that will live on long after we're gone. But what happens when an artist's life is cut short? Especially if their work wasn't recognized before their death? Producer Sue Mell first met the painter Mary Yntema back in 1975 when they shared an unheated studio in a garage at Bennington College. When Mary died mysteriously in 2002, she left behind 72 canvases and 2 portfolios filled with over a hundred water colors and gouaches. All that beautiful work now sits in a closet in Mary's mother's house in Glen Rock, New Jersey. This past March, Sue Mell spoke with some of Mary's friends and colleagues about their memories of Mary and those paintings, and spent an afternoon out in New Jersey, Mary's mother Lois and her sister Elizabeth, looking through a lifetimes worth of work.

So much of creating art is a struggle to be seen or heard--to give birth to something that has a life of it's own--something that will live on long after we're gone. But what happens when an artist's life is cut short? Especially if their work wasn't recognized before their death? Producer Sue Mell first met the painter Mary Yntema back in 1975 when they shared an unheated studio in a garage at Bennington College. When Mary died mysteriously in 2002, she left behind 72 canvases and 2 portfolios filled with over a hundred water colors and gouaches. All that beautiful work now sits in a closet in Mary's mother's house in Glen Rock, New Jersey. This past March, Sue Mell spoke with some of Mary's friends and colleagues about their memories of Mary and those paintings, and spent an afternoon out in New Jersey, Mary's mother Lois and her sister Elizabeth, looking through a lifetimes worth of work.