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Oral history interview with Flora Mace

Interviewee:
Mace, Flora, 1949-  Search this
Interviewer:
Herman, Lloyd E.  Search this
Creator:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this
Names:
4-H Youth Development Program (U.S.)  Search this
Contemporary Glass Gallery  Search this
International Farm Youth Exchange  Search this
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this
Pilchuck Glass Center (Stanwood, Wash.)  Search this
Plymouth State College -- Students  Search this
University of Illinois. -- Student  Search this
University of Utah  Search this
Wheaton Glass Village  Search this
Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this
Chihuly, Dale, 1941-  Search this
Handler, Audrey  Search this
Kirkpatrick, Joey  Search this
Moore, Ben  Search this
Morris, William, 1957-  Search this
Stankard, Paul, 1943-  Search this
Wheaton, Frank  Search this
Wheaton, Mary  Search this
Extent:
3 Items (sound discs (3 hrs., 25 min.) Audio, digital)
58 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place:
Norway -- description and travel
Date:
2005 August 17-18
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Flora Mace conducted 2005 August 17-18, by Lloyd E. Herman, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the artist's home and studio, which she shares with Joey Kirkpatrick, in Seattle, Washington.
Ms. Mace discusses growing up in New Hampshire, in a house that her family had lived in for generations; various family businesses, including clam-shucking; how her mother suffered from depression throughout her childhood; her grandparents, who played a large role in her upbringing; joining the 4-H and becoming a skilled shepherd; her family's hunting, fishing, and gathering, on which they survived during her childhood; the various art projects she did with her mother and grandmother, including making wreaths for friends and relatives; building tree houses out of scrap wood; trapping animals and making their pelts into clothes for her dolls; saving up her money from after school jobs and the 4-H competitions to buy tools; getting a scholarship from her grandmother's old employer to go to college; attending Plymouth State; her involvement in college athletics, including field hockey, skiing, and softball; early artistic influences, especially Alexander Calder; traveling to Norway on the International Farm Youth Exchange; attending the University of Illinois for graduate school and being their sculpture technician; attending a summer workshop at the University of Utah with Dale Chihuly; being invited by Chihuly to go to Pilchuck Glass School to continue her work; becoming an artist-in-residence at Wheaton Glass Village; having her first show at the Contemporary Glass Gallery (later the Heller Gallery) in New York; the growth of the studio glass movement in the late 1970s; and finally going to Pilchuck Glass School for the first time in 1979, where she met Joey Kirkpatrick. The continuation of Mace's story, and her lifelong collaboration with Kirkpatrick, is discussed in a joint interview of Kirkpatrick and Mace. Mace also recalls Bill Morris, Ben Moore, Audrey Handler, Paul Stankard, Mary and Frank Wheaton, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Flora Mace (1949- ) is a glass artist from Seattle, Washington. Lloyd E. Herman (1936- ) is a curator and former director of the Smithsonian's American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 25 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Topic:
Decorative arts  Search this
Depression in women  Search this
Glass artists -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- Interviews  Search this
Women artists  Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Identifier:
AAA.mace05a
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw97a282c98-cc3f-4a72-963c-5c245fbcf0ea
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-mace05a
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