MaryBeth Garrigan is a Minnesota-born artist and educator whose paintings weave together birds, memory, and environmental story into richly layered visual narratives. Starting in the 1970s, she became one of the earliest female falconers in Minnesota, entering a field then dominated by men and helping to shape a new generation of raptor conservationists.  Trained in studio art and animal science at the University of Minnesota, Garrigan began her professional life as a zookeeper and caretaker of the birdyard at Como Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota—a formative experience that deepened her bond with avian species and the natural world. She developed a dual career in raptor biology and art, working with peregrine falcon recovery programs, serving as the communications director at Gabbert Raptor Center at the University o f Minnesota, and later the executive director of the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.

Her artwork often centers on birds as guides through her own life experiences, from falconry and wildlife rehabilitation to nights under dark rural skies that inspired her love of the cosmos. Garrigan's public commissions include the "Quadriga: Elements of State" mosaics at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, and she has exhibited nationally in galleries, museums, and collaborative installations focused on climate, history, and Indigenous water protection projects.

Now based at the historic Schmidt Artist Lofts, Garrigan co-founded Ugly Daisy Studio, where she continues to explore oil, acrylic, and assemblage in series such as “Avian Night Sky,” created in collaboration with fellow artist Petra Johnita Lommen. Through her work with students, Indigenous communities, and special needs collaborators, she returns again and again to her lifelong goal of "art-making my world a better place." 

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