PAINTED OR FRAMED ART

Marta Urban has held a fascination with art and hand lettering from an early age and worked as a commercial artist while in high school. Although she did not pursue art in college, Urban knew that her interest in art would continue to grow and evolve. In the early 1980's, during a familiar trip to the local art museum, she viewed her first fraktur and it lit the desire within her to learn more about the illuminated documents.

Ending a career in social services to raise her family, Urban found she could devote more time to the artform that expresses her love of lettering, folk art and early Pennsylvania history. Being a self-taught artist, her research led her to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the heart of "Pennsylvania Dutch" country. Her appreciation of the art form and desire to create authentic folk art led her to the methods that are essentially the same as when the originals were made from 1750 to 1850. Traditional verses are chosen and the words inspire the layout and design.

Urban has been creating frakturs since 1987, doing all the work herself. She makes them by hand, one at a time. She puts each in museum-quality preservation and framing.

A lifelong resident of Western Pennsylvania, Marta lives with her husband and sons in a rural farmhouse and travels to sell her work at historical art fairs and folks art shows. Custom orders also account for a large number of her one of a kind pieces. Her frakturs can also be found at several galleries and select shops.