Marjorie Weiss grew up in New York and studied art at the State University at Buffalo which at the time was a vigorous center for contemporary art and music attracting many writers, poets, musicians and avant-garde artists. In this lively environment she began to work with photographs, painting large-scale pieces that were the beginning of her interest in memory and reminiscence. Influenced by the Photorealists, she painted a series of family portraits that were projected onto large canvasses and exhibited at the Hampshire College Gallery in her first solo show. In her subsequent work she began to focus on enigma and enigmatic forms, adding a sense of mystery and ambiguity and posing questions about the spatial and visual realities of dimension. These paintings evolved into the 'Chestertown Series', painted over a period of ten years and exhibited in galleries throughout the United States as well two one-person shows in Germany.