Location
Mary Motz Wills
Topics
Description
Mary Motz Wills was born in Virginia, but settled in Waco as a child, and later lived in Abilene. She attended the Art Students League in New York, studying with William Merritt Chase, Frank Vincet DuMond, and John Henry Twachtmann.
Wills is known for her detailed and exacting paintings of Texas wildflowers, which were shown at the Witte Museum (1935, 1943, 1955), the Texas Centennial Exposition (1936), and the American Museum of Natural History (1954). Her paintings were also published in Roadside Flowers of Texas (University of Texas Press, 1961), helping capture plants that are in some cases now endangered and largely gone from the Texas landscape. Wills’ original paintings, close to 2000 in number, have a permanent home in the Witte Museum.
Location Notes
The Grace Museum in Abilene might provide a suitable public place for a marker for Ms Wills, given her long residence in Abilene, her role in helping establish the Museum, and the fact that the Museum holds several of her works.
Bibliography
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Mary Motz Wills (paintings) and Howard S. Irwin (annotations). Roadside Flowers of Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961).