Mary Prisland was born February 22, 1947 in Madison, Wisconsin. She is a painter and printmaker currently residing in Northern California.

She earned her B.S Degree in Art in 1970 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and her PhD in Psychology in 1993 in San Francisco, California. Her art work has been shown in galleries in Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties of Northern California, in the States of Oregon and Wisconsin.

Prisland has been in numerous solo and group exhibitions and was proprietor of the gallery "Once in a Blue Moon" on Atwood Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin.
Her etching teacher and mentor was Andrew Balkin of AGB Graphics in Verona, Wisconsin.