About Maury
Maury, the youngest of four children of Harry and Ruth Ornest, was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1960. Two years after his birth the family moved to Los Angeles.
He and Harry shared a love of baseball, and Harry drilled Maury and his brother Mike for hours on end on how to field, bunt, steal bases and execute a double play. As a switch hitter, Maury became a star player and was the 76th pick in the professional baseball draft. He attended college and then played minor league baseball until injuries ended his career.
At 23, Maury began working in the business office of his father, who had recently purchased the St. Louis Blues hockey team and the arena where it played. He loved working in the family business, but over time things started to change.
Over the next few years, Maury began to experience the world as a hostile place. He suffered breaks from reality, and his life changed almost overnight. His supportive family searched desperately for effective treatments.
In his early 30s Maury began taking art classes at Otis College of Art and UCLA Extension, along with private instruction. He shared his love of creative expression with his mother, a passionate art collector. Hundreds of sketchbook pages demonstrate his fascination with and focus on the creative process. In the last two decades of his life, his output showed the depth and breadth of his understanding of art history, as well as his need to express himself creatively.
In his 50s Maury developed heart disease yet persisted bravely through physical suffering until the age of 58 when he passed away.
Despite the isolation and suffering he endured, Maury was an eternal optimist who always yearned to get back to the canvas. His optimism is evident in the joyous nature, wit and vibrant colors of his paintings. For information, contact: Laura Ornest at lornest@gmail.com.
