Biographical Sketch for Becky Brown (Martz)
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Becky Brown (Margaret Rebekah Brown Martz, 1914-2011) apprenticed in ceramics with her husband, Karl Martz, beginning after their marriage in 1935. In 1949, she studied design with Alma Eikerman at Indiana University. Prior to 1950, she often assisted Karl by making small pots to sell to tourists, some slip-cast in molds, often designed by Karl. Beginning in 1950, she made her own designs, eventually favoring animal motifs in hand-built ceramic sculpture. In the 1950's and 1960's, her work was exhibited in the Biennial Indiana Ceramics Exhibitions at the John Herron Art Museum in Indianapolis, and in the annual DePauw University Ceramics Shows. Becky traveled widely to studio potteries and museums throughout Europe, Mexico, and Japan. She worked as an apprentice in the Daisei family pottery in Mashiko, Japan, in 1971-2. In 1973, 1978, and 1981, her work was included by invitation in exhibits at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, at Indiana Central University, Saint Mary's College (Notre Dame, IN), and in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1970-1975, she was a Partner in The Gallery (founded by Rosemary Fraser) in Bloomington, Indiana, where her work was shown in two-person shows in 1978 and 1981. A solo exhibit was shown in 1979 at the Alliance Museum Shop at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In 1985-91, she was a Docent at the Indiana University Museum of Art. Her poem "Korean Vase" was published in The Studio Potter in 1998. In 2008, several of her ceramics works are included in a permanent display in the Midwest Museum of Art (Elkhart, IN).