Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Schweitzer taught herself to draw horses by attending the rodeo and talking with cowboys about her sketches.
Schweitzer would later reflect on this period, “I felt in my bones the West was my country [...] When I saw my first rodeo, I knew I'd never by happy until I came out here.”[2] During high school she wrote to western artist Will James, enclosing a drawing of a bucking bronco.
[citation needed] In July 1947 she was included in the Southern Arizona Bank and Trust Gallery exhibit alongside noted Tucson artists Hutton Webster Jr., Charles Bolsius, and Ray Strange.
That is the only way I can express myself to my own satisfaction.”[8] Schweitzer participated in the important 1948 Tucson Independent Artist’ Group exhibition New Look at Art with a work titled Catalina Torrent that was noted in the local paper.
She said of this period, “Looking and seeing is the most important part of my trade, [...] I have learned to look past the obvious and see the subtle colors, interesting shapes, patterns, and textures.
In February 1960 she showed at the Galerie Gildea in San Francisco[11] and in April at the opening exhibit of Raymond Burr’s Swarthe-Burr gallery in Los Angeles.
Throughout her process, Mac Schweitzer has produced some work of exceptional merits [...] she has consistently revealed a unique personal approach and a certain technical virtuosity in many painting there is fine sense of original and creative expression.
[14] Her painting of a pueblo, owned by designer Robert Kuykendall, was featured by Mary Brown in the 1962 Tucson Citizen Homes Section.
[15] On June 27, 1962, at 39, Schweitzer's body was found in her car on a dirt road near her home at Navajo National Monument, a remote area on the Navaho Indian Reservation.
The Rosequest Gallery continued to represent her work briefly; in December 1962, they exhibited her paintings alongside Maynard Dixon and Ray Strange.
[16] In February 1964 the Tucson Art Center held a two-week Mac Schweitzer Retrospective curated by Jack Maul, Harrison Moore, and Mrs. Maurice Grossman.