Marise McDermott, Witte Museum President Emeritus, has more than thirty years experience in the cultural arts, most recently as President and CEO of the Witte Museum in San Antonio. Under McDermott’s tenure as CEO, the museum published numerous award-winning books on Texas history, art, and culture. McDermott served on the American Alliance of Museum Accreditation Commission, including as Chair. Among other awards, McDermott was honored as the Jack Notes Outstanding Service Award from the Texas Association of Museums and also as the Liberal Arts Alumni of the Year from Texas State University where she earned her MFA in Writing. McDermott was a journalist in her first professional decade, including time as editor of the Texas Humanist, a publication of Humanities Texas. She is presenting Mary Virginia Carson: Pioneer Artist Capturing Rock Art With Watercolors.
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Mary Virginia Carson: Pioneer Artist Capturing Rock Art With Watercolors
In 1931, at age 25, Witte Museum Artist Mary Virginia Carson became entranced by the complexity, beauty, and allure of ancient murals in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, originally painted from more than 5,000 years ago until historic times. As witnessed in this book, the energetic and sometimes sumptuous watercolors show a passion that Carson reveals not only in her artistic work but also in her field notes about each rock art site.
Carson joined a summer-long Witte Museum expedition to sketch the images and murals created by the first people of what is now called West Texas. Carson sat on hot boulders in the blazing sun to render images before her on watercolor paper with as much fidelity as possible. Although many artists, archeologists and scientists have captured and analyzed the images since then, most recently with digital technology, each scientist begins the work with an acknowledgment of Carson as the first artist to provide public access to these cosmologically complex murals, some the most nuanced in the world.
The book includes 64 watercolor plates by Carson, as well as essays by Witte President Emeritus Marise McDermott and Witte Curator of Archeology Harry Shafer.
