After nearly eight decades of obscurity, the mystical paintings of Marian Spore Bush are finally receiving the recognition they deserve. The visionary artist, who abandoned her successful dental practice to pursue art after claiming to receive messages from spirits, is now the subject of a major exhibition that highlights her unique place in American art history.

Spore Bush's journey into the art world began in 1919 following the death of her mother. Like many Americans grappling with grief in the aftermath of World War I, she turned to an Ouija board for comfort. This initial exploration of spiritualism would completely transform her life's trajectory. Through the Ouija board, Spore Bush claimed she began receiving communications from what she called "the People" or simply "They" - a group of nonphysical entities who urged her to begin creating art.

What makes Spore Bush's story particularly remarkable is her professional background. Born in 1878 in Bay City, Michigan, she had established herself as the state's first licensed female dentist, earning respect in her field and achieving financial independence. By all accounts, she had never studied art or even considered it as a pursuit. Yet at around age 40, after two decades of successful dental practice, she closed her office and embarked on an entirely new career path.

According to her posthumously published autobiography, these spiritual entities dictated every aspect of her artistic practice, from the colors of paint she should purchase to the subjects she should depict in her large-scale oil paintings. This extraordinary claim resulted in a body of work that has largely been overlooked by art historians - until now.

The exhibition "Life Afterlife: Works c. 1919-1945" at Karma gallery in New York, running through September 6th, marks Spore Bush's first solo show in nearly 80 years. The timing is particularly significant as art institutions increasingly recognize women artists who worked outside formal artistic movements and traditional academic training.

"Marian Spore Bush didn't go to art school, and she wasn't copying anyone," explained Bob Nickas, curator of the exhibition. "There was not even any financial motive for her in making art. It was a compulsion." The show positions Spore Bush alongside other spiritual modernists like Hilma af Klint and Gertrude Abercrombie, inviting viewers to reassess this self-taught artist who worked in isolation under claimed spiritual guidance.

Spore Bush's artistic development began when she traveled to Guam, where her brother was serving as governor general. In this remote location, she started painting for the first time, initially creating floral still lifes in oil paint on paper. However, her work quickly evolved. Between 1919 and 1922, prophetic figures began appearing in her compositions - robed, watchful beings often surrounded by baby animals. One such work, "Untitled" from the 1920s, depicts a sage-like figure greeting congregating animals. While these early compositions maintained a gentle quality, Spore Bush's symbolism grew increasingly heavy, hinting at the moral conviction that would characterize her later paintings.

After her time in Guam, Spore Bush moved to New York City and established a studio in Greenwich Village. Dedicating herself to painting full-time, she continued to claim guidance from the same voices that had initially urged her to create. Her early New York canvases were vibrant and intuitive, featuring swirling forms and thick layers of paint that sometimes rose from the surface like low relief sculptures. "The Green Bird" (c. 1930) exemplifies this period - depicting a descending bird floating above a lily pond against a fiery sky, with impasto technique so thick on the bird's tail that the feathers appear almost three-dimensional.

A dramatic shift occurred in the early 1930s when Spore Bush's colorful palette gave way to stark black-and-white canvases. She claimed that "the People" had warned her of impending war, prompting her to create stark allegorical works depicting disaster. This transformation is dramatically illustrated in the Karma exhibition, where "The Green Bird" hangs across from "The Gaunt Bird of Famine" (1933). The later work shows a reaper-like bird with massive white wings hovering over a lifeless cityscape, rendered in crude but powerful brushstrokes.

As her paintings grew increasingly grim, Spore Bush's personal life took a different direction. During the Great Depression, she operated a breadline providing free food to people in the Bowery. The press dubbed her "the Angel of the Bowery," and The New York Times referred to her as "Lady Bountiful." It was through this charitable work that she met her future husband, businessman Irving T. Bush, who would later support her artistic career.

"It feels especially meaningful to show Marian's work just a few blocks from where she ran her breadline on Second Avenue," noted Brendan Dugan, founder of Karma gallery. "There's something so charged and unexpected about these paintings."

Spore Bush's work gained national attention when TIME magazine profiled her in 1943, coinciding with an exhibition at New York's Grand Central Galleries. The magazine heralded the artist as a "prophetess," recognizing her prescient warnings about global conflict. Once World War II began, her work addressed the war more directly. "Hitler Meets God" (1943) depicts the German leader as a serpent facing divine judgment, while "Unknown Soldiers" (1943) features warships beyond a flock of birds.

Birds became a central motif in Spore Bush's symbolic vocabulary, representing judgment or protection depending on the context. Many of these avian figures are rendered in grisaille, a painting technique using various shades of gray. "The Pawn Broker (Three Vultures)" (ca. 1933-34) shows two inquisitive vultures descending toward a chained and drowning man - a typical allegory of punishment for human hubris that characterizes much of her work.

Despite working during the same period as the Surrealists, Spore Bush was allegedly unaware of their existence. Instead, she belongs among spiritual modernists who often worked in isolation, including Agnes Pelton and Paulina Peavy. "The common ground for these artists is that art is a means of communicating and transcending," Nickas explained.

According to her autobiography, Spore Bush was directed by "the People" to share a single, fundamental message: "There is no death." While some of her works appear apocalyptic, others hint at salvation and redemption. "Seascape" (1943) depicts a lone woman drifting on wreckage across a churning sea, with an elegant white bird with an extended red beak hovering above her - perhaps a gentle angel of death or a symbol of hope.

Spore Bush died in 1946, shortly after World War II ended, having spent the final decades of her life creating a body of work that challenged conventional artistic practice and explored themes of spirituality, mortality, and transcendence.

The title "Life Afterlife" proves particularly apt for this exhibition. For an artist who believed so fiercely in the persistence of the soul, this posthumous recognition serves as a kind of resurrection - an earthly afterlife for someone who spent her career channeling what she believed to be messages from beyond. "She believed there was life after death. The fact that there is this show proves that," reflected Nickas. "But it's also a metaphor for art across all history. The artist lives on through their work."

This renewed interest in Spore Bush reflects broader changes in how art institutions approach overlooked artists, particularly women who worked outside established movements. Her story challenges traditional narratives about artistic training and inspiration, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of spirituality and creativity in American art. As galleries and museums continue to expand their understanding of artistic achievement, figures like Marian Spore Bush are finally finding their place in the historical record, proving that sometimes the most compelling art comes from the most unexpected sources.