Background
Marie Watt was born in 1967 in Seattle, Washington. Watt is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation and her father is a son of Wyoming ranchers.
Marie Watt was born in 1967 in Seattle, Washington. Watt is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation and her father is a son of Wyoming ranchers.
She holds an American Finance Association from the Institute of American Indian Arts, a Bachelor of Science from Willamette University and an Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University.
Participant Seneca, Watt has created work in many different media centered on contemporary Native American themes. These two side of her background have influenced her artwork and Watt describes herself as "half Cowboy and half Indian." In September 2004, as part of the Continuum 12 artists series, an exhibit of her work opened in New York City and the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibit includes Blanket Stories, a sculpture made of two towers of wool blankets, with each stack sewn together with a central thread.
The blankets are ones Watt collected over several years, including many Hudson"s Bay point blankets that were given to Native Americans in trade by the Hudson"s Bay Company during the 19th century.
In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned Watt to produce a site-specific artwork for their Seattle campus. The work, entitled Blanket Stories: Matriarch, Guardian and Seven Generations, is a 14-foot column of wool blankets from all over the world and is located in the building"s lobby.
She is currently a professor at Portland Community College and the gallery coordinator of its Northview Gallery.