Marian Spore Bush

Marian Spore Bush
Marian Spore Bush at the easel
Born	Flora May Spore (1878-10-22)October 22, 1878 Bay City, Michigan, U.S.
Died	February 24, 1946(1946-02-24) (aged 67)
Other names	Flora Marian Spore Mrs. Irving T. Bush
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Occupation	dentist painter philanthropist writer
Spouse(s)	Irving T. Bush
Parent(s)	Melvin and Helen Miller Spore

Marian Spore Bush (October 22, 1878 – February 24, 1946) left her successful Michigan dental practice for a studio in Greenwich Village, New York City, and became a self-taught painter in the 1920s. She claimed her large surrealistic works were inspired by long-dead artists who were communicating with her from "beyond the veil." Her predictions of the future, her unusual artwork, her work with the poor in New York City's Bowery, and her eventual marriage to Irving T. Bush incited much interest in the national press.

Marian Spore Bush was born Flora May Spore in Bay City, Michigan, on October 22, 1878, to Melvin and Helen Miller Spore. She attended Western High School in Bay City graduating in 1895 and went on to Ann Arbor to graduate from the University of Michigan College of Dentistry in 1899. Flora opened a dental office in Bay City in 1901 and became the first female dentist in Bay County. She was widely appreciated "for her progressive and excellent work in the day when she fabricated inlays, crowns, bridgework, and dental plates in her own laboratory. She was also a pioneer in the field of periodontal dentistry."

According to her sister Belle Spore Tunison, "although a woman of varied interests, Mrs. Bush never had the slightest inclination towards art--either theoretically or in practice--until after the death of her mother, Mrs. M. L. Spore, in 1919. She gave up her dental practice then and went to Guam to spend six months with her brother, Lieut. Comm. James Sutherland Spore, who was governor general at that time, and there she began her first painting." After some further travels abroad, she settled in New York City and rented a studio in Greenwich Village.

As Flora Marian Spore, "she became well-known for a new and unusual technique, sometimes using paint so thick it seemed as much sculpture as painting. Brilliant color, power, and an unquestioned sense of design of a new and mystic school brought her work to the attention of art critics who reviewed her paintings with interest and favor."