Mary Catherine Lamb

Mary Catherine Lamb (March 12, 1949 – August 15, 2009) was an American textile artist, whose quilts reframed traditional Roman Catholic iconography. Recycling vintage textiles popular during the mid-20th century, she both honored and affectionately skewered her Catholic upbringing.

Early life and education Mary Catherine Lamb, known as "MC" to her friends, was born March 12, 1949, in Oakland, California, into a devoutly Catholic family. Her only sibling, Colette, was born three years later. Lamb read voraciously as a child, a habit she continued all her life, and also kept a journal that by the time of her death ran to 22 volumes, filled with elaborate illustrations.

Quilting Clearing out the family home in Oakland after her mother's death in 1986, "I found a lot of Catholic mementos that really stirred me," she said years later. "It was a revelation to me to realize I could embrace the images in a completely different way, on my own terms. It could incorporate playfulness and irreverence. But it also has a little bit of grief and yearning for the security of the past." "While maintaining my decades-long rejection of the Church, I found that rather than feeling the old rebellious anger I’d long held for these images, I savored the intensity of nostalgia they stimulated. The irony inherent in these parallel responses didn’t escape me," she said.

"All My Hope" quilt by Mary Catherine Lamb, 1987Around the time her mother died, Lamb enrolled in an art class at Marylhurst College taught by Portland art photographer Christopher Rauschenberg and multimedia artist Susan Banyas; the class explored the possibilities of translating life events into art. In time, she would become known for her eccentric choices of materials in creating "wry narratives that blended Christian symbolism with social comment," her multileveled pictorial quilts "at once innocent and troubling, reverent and irreverent, serious and tongue-in cheek." Lamb's first "religious" quilts impressed Rauschenberg by "the level of her craft, her vision, dealing with the religious imagery that can be traumatizing." He became a friend who championed and promoted her work throughout the rest of her life and after her death. Rummaging through Portland's garage sales and thrift stores, Lamb emerged with raw materials, treasures to her thinking: cast-off mid-20th century curtains, tablecloths and garments. These discarded fabrics would continue to reinforce memories of her Catholic childhood, "when certain religious images conveyed to me unquestioned order of the universe – with fond amusement not unlike my feelings for the holy cards themselves." Among the silks, satins, brocades and metallics she gathered were "some hideous things I’d rather be shot in the foot than wear." Robert Shaw, renowned quilt curator, historian and author, met and befriended Lamb early on, featuring two of her quilts in his influential 1997 book, The Art Quilt. Michael James, internationally-known, pioneering quilt artist and author (now chair of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design), was another who quickly recognized Lamb's unique blend of the sacred and profane, and wrote about her. from 1993 through 1998, and was subsequently invited to join Nine Gallery, co-founded by nine artists, including Rauschenberg. Over the years her quilts were displayed in both galleries, in solo shows as well as in exhibitions with fellow member artists.

Personal life and community activism Mary Catherine Lamb arrived in Portland in 1972 and found the city to be suitably politically liberal and a mecca for artists and writers. She quickly attracted a group of loyal friends who called themselves "MC's Tribe" and stuck with her through the end. A small, serene figure of The Virgin of Guadalupe presided over the living room, guarded by a ring of plastic cootie toys. Elsewhere, other religious statuettes, holy cards, paintings and prayer books were arranged in abundance, a collection that, like her quilts, "both honors and affectionately skewers my Catholic upbringing," she said. the Portland Tribune, and at least one national magazine, including Budget Living. The home was sold and the hundreds of items Lamb had meticulously amassed and arranged throughout her home were distributed among The Tribe.