Mary Fuller McChesney (October 20, 1922 – May 4, 2022) was an American sculptor and art historian. She was a 1975 National Endowment for the Arts fellow.

Early life and education McChesney was born to Robert Fuller and Karen Rasmussen on October 20, 1922, in Wichita, Kansas and grew up in Stockton, California after moving there at age two with her family. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied philosophy with Paul Marhenke.

Leaving before graduating, she became a welder in the Richmond, California shipyard, during World War II, and potter at California Faience.

Career She started a ceramics business of her own, along with her partner Avrum "Bill" Rubenstein: "Two Fish Pottery". She held her first solo art show, of paintings and clay sculptures, Artists’ Guild Gallery (an artists’ co-op) in San Francisco. Through her association with The Artists' Guild Gallery, she became acquainted with a wide variety of her contemporary artists, including Hassel Smith, Ed Corbett, Emmy Lou Packard, Robert P. McChesney, George Goya, John Hultbert, Clyfford Still, and Ad Reinhardt.

She married Robert McChesney in December 1949; they lived in the North Bay area. They moved to Sonoma Mountain in Sonoma County near Petaluma, California in 1952, after living in Mexico for a year, and lived and worked there through Robert McChesney's death in 2008, after which Mary remained there, continuing to work, until the late 2010s. During their time in Guadalajara, Mexico, she began writing seriously, publishing a story in "New Story," and embarking upon writing mystery novels, publishing her first in 1953. She also began writing articles for Art Digest, then for Artforum.

She experimented with different sculpture formats, including wood and stone, before developing the cement mixed with vermiculite that she used for the majority of her work. She received her first public art commission for a work in Salinas, followed by her work for San Francisco General Hospital and many subsequent commissions.

Fuller died at an assisted living facility in Petaluma, California on May 4, 2022, at the age of 99. The research materials for her books are held at the Archives of American Art.

List of public artwork

1974 “Dos Leones,” San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California 1975 “Temko Lions,” Frenso Avenue, Berkeley, California 1975 Children’s Sculpture Park, Salinas Community Center, Salinas, California 1977 Falcon Andrew Hill High School, San Jose, California 1978 “Yuba Totem,” Yuba Lion California Arts Council Award for the Department of Motor Vehicles Building, Yuba City, California 1992 “Gualala Shakti,” Gualala, California 1982 “Tot-Lot,” Portsmouth Square, San Francisco, California 1983 “Olympic Lions,” Squaw Valley, California 1983 “Stratford Memorial Lion & Bear,” Petaluma Library, Petaluma, California 1984 “Anshen-Mays Garden Sculptures,” Sausalito, California 1985 “Earth, Air, Sea,” West Side Pump Station, San Francisco, California 1988 Random Ridge Winery Gate, Napa, California 1986 Robinson Totem, Santa Rosa, California 1987 Playground Sculptures, Los Angeles State Office Bldg., Los Angeles, California 1989 Rebecca Hirsch Totem, Mill Valley, California 1993 “Seacliff Park Benches,” Santa Cruz, California 1994 “Broadway Plaza Totem,” Walnut Creek, California 1996 “Portsmouth Square Lions,” San Francisco, California 1997 “Peace Totem,” Cape Cod, Massachusetts 1999 Sogin Wall, Occidental, California 2001 Becky Temko Park, Berkeley, California 2001 Rainbow Ridge, Reno, California 2002 Annex Gallery Fountain, Santa Rosa, California 2003 Petaluma Animal Shelter Sculpture, Petaluma, California 2019 Three Outdoor Sculptures, Petaluma Library, Petaluma, California

Writing A Period of Exploration: San Francisco 1945–1950 Oakland Museum, 1973, OCLC 754950 Under pen-names:

Rayter, Joe (mysteries) The Victim Was Important New York, Scribner, 1954, OCLC 9526317 Asking for Trouble New York : M.S. Mill and W. Morrow, 1955, OCLC 317837980 Stab In the Dark New York, M.S. Mill and W. Morrow, 1955, OCLC 2978566 Franklin, Melissa Courier of Desire San Diego, Greenleaf Classics, 1969, OCLC 657708966 Murder In Her Thighs San Diego, Corinth Publications, 1969, OCLC 666424742 Nymphs, Horses, and Athletes New York, Ophelia Press, 1979, OCLC 157135 Putting on the Dog San Diego, Greenleaf Classics, 1971, OCLC 874768193

References

External links Oral history interview with Mary Fuller McChesney, 1994 Sept. 28, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution http://calabigallery.com/mary-fuller-mcchesney/ City of Berkeley, CA, "Cat and Dog" sculpture description FulMac Foundation: Mary Fuller McChesney bio