Marie Watt facts for kids

Marie Watt, born in 1967, is a modern artist who lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She is a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians. Marie Watt creates art mainly using fabrics and by working with communities. Her art often explores different themes related to Native American cultures.

About Marie Watt

Marie Watt was born in 1967 in Seattle, Washington. She studied Speech Communications and Art at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She also learned about museums at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Marie has several degrees, including one from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She also has a degree from Willamette University and a master's degree in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University.

Watt is part of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation. Her father's family were Wyoming ranchers. These parts of her background have really shaped her art. Marie often says she is "half Cowboy and half Indian."

Marie Watt's Artworks

Marie Watt often uses blankets in her art. She creates large art pieces and works with groups of people. She also makes lithography prints. For her sculptures and installations, she uses many different things. These include everyday objects, textiles (fabrics), alabaster stone, slate, and cornhusks.

She gets ideas for her art from Pop art, Abstract Expressionism, and old Native American art styles. Marie had a studio in Portland, Oregon. There, she started trying out materials like corn husks. Later, she began working with woven blankets. In 2002, her stone sculpture called Pedestrian was placed along the Willamette River in Portland. Her art has been shown in many exhibits in the Pacific Northwest.

Community Art Projects

Marie Watt often involves the community in making her art. For example, her project Blanket Stories: Transportation Object, Generous Ones at the Tacoma Art Museum was a big effort. It involved making large art pieces from blankets that people in the community donated. The blankets are not just materials. Marie believes they help connect people and share stories. She also thinks blankets link to old traditions and different cultures.

Watt often hosts "sewing circles." These are groups of people who gather to work on art together. In one project called Forget me not: Mothers and Sons, they made portraits of soldiers from Oregon. These soldiers had died in the Iraqi war.

Marie Watt's Career Highlights

In September 2004, Marie Watt's art was shown in New York City. It was part of the Continuum 12 artists series at the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian. This exhibit included Blanket Stories. This sculpture was made of two tall stacks of wool blankets. Each stack was sewn together with a single thread. Marie collected these blankets over several years. Many were Hudson's Bay point blankets. These blankets were given to Native Americans by the Hudson's Bay Company long ago.

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked Marie Watt to create a special artwork for their campus in Seattle. This piece is called Blanket Stories: Matriarch, Guardian and Seven Generations. It is a 14-foot tall column made of wool blankets from all over the world. It is located in the building's main lobby. Marie explained that the blankets fit the location well. She said it was her first column made to include blankets from around the world. This idea matched the Foundation's global work. The column also used recycled blankets and cedar wood. This fit the campus's goal to be environmentally friendly.

In 2014, 350 people helped create an outdoor sculpture at the Tacoma Art Museum. The tall structures she made were later cast in bronze. Marie also created a website where people could read the stories behind each blanket. Marie listens to her materials and uses a strong sense of community and storytelling in her art. Her works can be both realistic and abstract.

From 2017 to 2023, Marie Watt was on the board of directors for VoCA. This group works to protect modern art. Marie also taught at Portland Community College from 1997 to 2004. She was also the leader of its Northview Gallery. Her art is shown by galleries in Portland, San Francisco, and New York City.

Selected Art Shows

• Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. (2010)
• Unsuspected Possibilities: Leonardo Drew, Sarah Oppenheimer, and Marie Watt. SITE Santa Fe. (2015)
• Indelible Ink: Native Women, Printmaking, Collaboration. University of New Mexico Art Museum. (2020)
• Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019. Whitney Museum of Art. (2019–2022)
• Spirit in the Land. Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. (2023)
• Spirit in the Land. Pérez Art Museum Miami. (2024)
• Marie Watt: Land Stitches Water Sky. Carnegie Museum of Art. (2024)

Awards and Fellowships

• 2005 Eiteljorg Museum Artist Fellowship
• 2005 Seattle Art Museum Betty Bowen Award
• 2006 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship
• 2007 Anonymous Was A Woman Award
• 2009 Bonnie Bronson Fellowship
• 2017 Hallie Ford Fellowship in the Visual Arts
• 2019 Harpo Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship
• 2024 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts

Art in Collections

Marie Watt's art can be found in many important art collections, including:

• Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO)
• Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, MI)
• Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art (Indianapolis, IN)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)
• The National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)
• National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, Ontario, CA)
• Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR)
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery (Washington, DC)
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC)
• Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA)
• Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY)
• Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT)