Marguerite Blasingame facts for kids

Marguerite Louis Blasingame Charles (1906–1947) was an American sculptor and painter. Born Marguerite Louis in Honolulu in 1906, she graduated from the University of Hawaii and went on to earn an M.A. in fine art from Stanford University in 1928. The artist then returned to Hawaii, where she became an established sculptor of figural works, many of them bas-reliefs in wood and stone. Her depictions were usually sinuous in contour with simplified anatomy. During the Great Depression, Blasingame was a Works Progress Administration artist and filled many commissions for architectural panels.

Marguerite Blasingame founded the Hawaiian Mural Arts Guild in 1934, along with Isami Doi, Madge Tennent, and others. She authored A Course in Art Appreciation for the Adult Layman, which was published by Stanford University Press. Blasingame died in 1947 while traveling in Mexico. She was survived by her second husband, Forrest Charles, and sons Pierre F. Charles and William Blasingame. One of her wooden sculptures is installed in the John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery of the Honolulu Museum of Art. She made four wood carvings flanking the lectern and pulpit of Church of the Crossroads in 1935, symbolizing four great religious faiths: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.[5] Other sculptures in public places includes an untitled 1935 marble sculpture in Ala Moana Park, Honolulu, Hawaii and Hawaiian Decagonal Fountain (1934–1935) at Kawananakoa School, Honolulu, Hawaii.