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marie watt

Born in Seattle, Washington, 1967                                              
Studied at Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut     
Lives and works in Portland, Oregon

Since 2004 Marie Watt’s Blanket Stories has traveled across the United States.  She asked the audience to share their personal experiences and stories pertaining to blankets.  In this print, Watt transcribed these recollections and arranged them into a woven tapestry of memory.

“Blankets hang around in our lives and families—they gain meaning through use. My work explores social and cultural histories imbedded in commonplace objects. I consciously draw from indigenous design principles, oral traditions, and personal experience to shape the inner logic of the work I make.”

Selected recent exhibitions
2007   Tread Lightly, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon
            Northwest Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum, Oregon     

2006   Blanket Stories: Canopy, Nicolaysen Museum of Art, Casper, Wyoming
Blanket Stories: Almanac, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, Idaho
Migrations, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico

2005   Blanket Stories: Ladder, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Everything is Drawing, Hallie Ford Museum, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon

Selected public collections
Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana
Portland Art Museum, Oregon
Seattle Art Museum, Washington
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C.
Tacoma Art Museum, Washington

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Last updated: May 2007