loading image
Mary Fuller McChesney (1922 – 2022) was a largely self-taught sculptor and art historian. After studying philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, she embarked on a more dexterous pursuit and apprenticed with potter William Bragdon (1884–1959) at California Faience in Berkeley. During the Second World War, she worked as a welder at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, California. By 1949, Mary lived in Point Richmond with her husband, Abstract Expressionist painter Robert McChesney (1913–2008), and made ceramic sculpture with a kiln that she constructed at their home. She was greatly inspired by Pre-Columbian sculpture when they moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1951, to join a group of Bay Area and New York artists. See “California Modernist Women: Groundbreaking Creativity” on display, post-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and online at: https://bit.ly/CaliforniaModernistWomen
This image was posted on June 28, 2022.