User:Martha Wagele/sandbox

Martha Mood was an American artist who created stitchery, photography, sculpture and ceramic work. Mood is best known for elevating the craft of stitchery to a fine art and for being one of the first stitchery artists in the United States to create a large, well-known body of work.

Life
Martha Mood (1908-1972) spent her childhood and early adult years in the Bay Area. She was born in Oakland, CA, to German immigrant parents who owned a bakery. At the age of seven, her family moved to San Rafael, CA, where she attended St. Rafael’s Roman Catholic parochial school and Dominican College High School. She enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in 1926, where she studied a broad range of art subjects, as well as architecture, music and languages, graduating in 1931. In 1929 Mood took a year off from UC Berkeley to attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland to study anatomy, pen-and-ink, and outdoor sketching. After college, Martha Mood engaged in painting, sculpture, toy production and photography. She was married to John Homsy, her first husband, from 1931-1946. The Homsys had two daughters, Ann Homsy Woodward (teacher and ceramicist) and Susan Homsy Bragstad (architect). In 1940 the family moved from California to Hawaii, where Martha worked as a photographer.

Martha was married to Beaumont Mood, her second husband, from 1947-1966. The Mood’s lived in Dallas, Texas, for 5 years. While on a photographic tour of Texas, Martha and Beaumont were in a serious car accident. Martha almost lost her life and she required numerous surgeries over the next two years to repair extensive facial injury. In 1952 the Moods moved to the San Antonio, Texas. Martha Mood taught art in San Antonio public schools and at The San Antonio Art Institute. Following a ceramics class, Martha Mood produced many sculptures and architectural fixtures. Mood began experimentation with stitchery, also known as appliqué tapestry, in the early 1950's. Stitchery is a form of visual art that is created by sewing fabric onto a background to form an image. By 1959, at the age of 51, stitchery had developed into Mood’s primary artistic medium. She created over 500 stitcheries between 1959 and 1972.

Martha was married to Edgar Lehmann, her third husband, from 1968 until her death. She died of cancer at her home in Helotes, Texas in 1972.

Photography
Martha Mood worked as a photographer from 1931-1959.

Mood took photographs for several books, including:

Parents and Children Go to School (1939) by Dorothy Baruch.

The Hula: The Dance and Its Meaning, 1944

Ceramic Work
Martha Mood created ceramic sculptures, typically of animals or human figures. She also made ceramic panels and murals with images in the clay. The ceramic panels were up to 6x10 feet.

Notable San Antonio architect, O'Niel Ford, was looking for an artist to make light fixtures for his work when met Martha Mood at her solo ceramic sculpture exhibit in San Antonio in 1957. Ford commissioned Martha Mood to design ceramic fixtures for homes and buildings that he designed, such as the Vexler residence.

Stitchery
history

process

themes

style

After her death, dye transfer reproductions of 34 stitcheries were made at the Manufactura de Tapecarias de Portalegre workshop in Portugal. Martha Mood usually stitched her signature at the bottom of her pieces, "Martha Mood." Following her marriage to Ed Lehmann in 1968, she signed the pieces "Martha Mood L". Mood's agent, Lester K. Henderson, owned the copyright of many her stitcheries and these pieces are noted by "c. LKH 1972."

Exhibitions
Martha Mood's works have been exhibited in approximately 20 cities in the United States. She participated in more than 30 one and two-man shows.

"A Sudden Rush of Wings: the work of Martha Mood Lehmann." The University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio. November 12-26, 1972

"The Art Fabric: Mainstream," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. May-June, 1981

Collections
Martha Mood artwork has been found in numerous private collections, public installations and museums. Private collectors included Lyndon B Johnson, John Connally, Winthrop Rockefeller, Clint Murchison, O'Neil Ford, Charles Urschel. Also, Lester Henderson,

public: Her works have been represented at Rice University, the San Antonio Country Club, the Margarite B. Parker Memorial Chapel at Trinity University, and the U.S.I.A. Building in Washington, D.C., St Mary's Hall.

museums: