Biography
Farrell grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts where there was an excellent art museum across the street from her high school. This museum (and others in New York City) in conjunction with an excellent art program in her high school helped shape her initial artistic tastes and inspired her to study at the Rhode Island School of Design to become an artist herself. However, life happened, and she wound up working in the physical sciences throughout her professional career.
Despite this shift, she retained her love for art museums throughout her life. Through them, she became enamored with all kinds of art, from Classical Greece through the Old Masters to Modern Art. She was particularly taken with the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, in the representational realm, and the Abstract Expressionism at the other extreme.
In Science, Farrell did research on a variety of projects ranging from solid state physics to catalysis, and eventually to nanoparticles and elementary particles. She has worked in national laboratories, academia, and industrial laboratories in at least ten different states. These jobs took her to locations around the country, most of which had museums that helped to further extend her love not only of art, but of the museums themselves.. Several years after she moved to the Idaho Falls area, the Art Museum of Eastern Idaho (TAM) opened, and she found a new museum to appreciate.
After retirement, Farrell decided to get back into art and took art classes at TAM. She also traveled to Europe with several art-oriented tours sponsored by the museum. During these experiences, she developed a deep appreciation of TAM’s educational outreach programs for schools in Eastern Idaho. In her estimation, this educational effort is perhaps TAM’s most important activity and fills a void not fully addressed by State or local governments. Based on these experiences, and the life-long richness that art and art museums have brought to her life, Farrell has supported the TAM educational program and made a commitment to help grow TAM by donating art to its permanent collection. As of 2025, she has donated over 80 works of art in the permanent collection. She is also a museum artist and a Docent and volunteers weekly to help greet visitors.