EVENT PREVIEW

Arts for Independence

More than 70 artists present paintings, pottery, photography, textiles, jewelry, folk art and metal and wood works at the fifth annual benefit. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. today. Marcus Institute, 1920 Briarcliff Road (near Clifton Road), Atlanta. $10; $18 for two; free for 18 and under. 770-677-9303, artsforindependence.org.

When Mary and Mark Zeman remodeled the kitchen of their Woodstock home recently, her painting table was given the boot, at his request.

"Several times we'd sit down to eat dinner and get paint on our clothes," recalls Mary Zeman, without apparent major regret. "So no more painting in the kitchen. But I love my painting table, and now it's in the front room, and I use it every day."

Using the top of her kitchen table literally as a palette isn't the only way in which Zeman, who will participate in the Arts for Independence artist market today, is a little different.

Born in Queens, the 42-year-old artist paints in bright, cheery hues that feel as deeply rooted as wisteria vines in the sunny South.

And though she graduated from the University of Georgia in 1987, she's self-taught as an artist, and her works are frequently shown at folk art fairs like Folk Fest and Who Fest.

A major life trial turned Zeman, who had mainly worked in TV production, into an artist. After having surgery to remove a benign tumor from the right side of her brain in 1997, she felt a strong compulsion to paint --- though the closest she'd ever come to making art was trying to carve a bar of soap in third grade.

Her only explanation for that urge: "It just seems like something was stirred up to get me to paint after never doing it my entire life."

In late 2000, she decided to become a full-time artist and has sold more than 1,000 of her largely improvised and pattern-filled paintings on board, canvas and rescued doors, cabinets and, yes, tables.

It's a number that's likely to grow today when she participates in the Arts for Independence event at the Marcus Institute, benefiting a Jewish Family & Career Services program for adults with disabilities.

On how living in the South inspires her: "I'm moved by the history here. The people who are native Southerners just seem to have a sense of where they're from and how that factors into who they are. I will always feel a little like I don't belong here, even though I've lived here for 30 years."

On the fertile flowers and smiling faces that fill her compositions: "The bright colors just make me feel good, and I paint how I want to. If it makes people happy, that's good [too]."

On the darnedest things she hears or overhears at fairs and festivals: "I always hear moms or dads say to their kids, 'Honey, you can do that.' And that's OK, I really wish I had made art when I was young. I think it's great therapy."

Artists who inspire her: From Picasso to Andy Warhol to graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat to the late Georgia folk artists Howard Finster and Harry Teague.

In regular rotation on her iPod: Paul Westerberg, the Replacements, Aimee Mann, Elliott Smith.

On how she squares being in folk art shows when she's college educated: "I just say that I'm self-taught more than anything. I did go to college, but I never studied or had any schooling in art, not even art history.

"... People get too caught up in what the art is or isn't. I have this one piece by the artist Big Chief that says, 'All art is folk art, 'cause I don't see no horses painting.' I like that!"