Marijana Grisnik
Marijana (mah-ree-YAW-nah) was born Mary Ann Pinter in 1936 in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. All four of her grandparents immigrated from Croatia. Her father's parents came from the village of Ravna Gora. Her mother's from the village of Ribnik in the Gorski Kotar region.
Marijana's parents met and married on Strawberry Hill.
Marijana's family was very close-knit with two older brothers and two younger sisters.
She was especially close with her father, who first taught her how to draw.
She attended St. John the Baptist grade school and Bishop Ward High School. After high school, she worked as a clerk for Trans World Airlines where she was employed for two years until her marriage to Edward Grisnik in 1956. His family was also from Croatia, and he was raised in an area just west of Strawberry Hill.
Ed was well known for his musical talent as choir director and the founder of the Ed Grisnik Orchestra. In 1975, he founded the Ethnic Choir, and in 1978, the Strawberry Hill Croatian Folk Ensemble. Ed's group played at many wedding receptions and festivals. His groups also performed across Kansas and what was then Yugoslavia, now Croatia. He was named a master artist in the Kansas Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program administered by the Kansas State Historical Society, and he was a recipient of the 1991 Kansas Governor's Art Award. He passed away in 2020.
After her marriage, she moved to western Wyandotte County and raised her three children. During her third pregnancy, she began painting. When she completed her painting of Strawberry Hill, she stored it behind the couch in the living room. She confided in some friends about the painting, and they encouraged her to bring it out. She always chose to concentrate on illustrating memories from her life rather than contemporary scenes. Each painting documented another part of Strawberry Hill.
When she began painting, she adopted the name Marijana, reflecting her cultural heritage and artistic identity.
Over the course of her 50-year career, Marijana painted over 350 works of art, nearly all of Strawberry Hill.
She currently resides in the Kansas City area.
Excerpts taken from Images of Strawberry Hill by Jennie Chin.
Marijana, 1980