Mary Le Ravin

Mary Le Ravin (1905 – September 1992) was an African American visionary artist and ordained minister. She was a self-taught artist best known for creating sculptures, jewelry, household items and trinkets out of animal bones, natural materials, and other found objects.

Life and work Le Ravin was born Mary Cooper in Natchez, Mississippi and grew up in Jefferson County, Mississippi. She reported being very spiritual and in direct communication with God from a very young age. She told the story of being "showered" by the Holy Spirit while sitting on her porch during a thunderstorm. She began collecting bones in childhood.

Later years

In 1968, after being called racial slurs at the county fair in Gary, where she won several art competitions, Le Ravin moved to Los Angeles to be near her sister, Sarah. By the time Le Ravin ended up in California she was an ordained minister. As Mother Mary, she procured free use of a storefront in an area, near the University of Southern California, that housed many black-owned businesses. From this location, she set up an all-in-one thrift shop, art studio, and kitchen for feeding the poor and homeless.

Thus, Le Ravin earned the nickname "47th Street Mama". After some time performing this charitable work, God told her to "Stop feeding them and start preaching". Due to the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake and her declining health, Le Ravin was forced to leave her storefront space, abandoning many unfinished sculptures, barrels of bones, and other materials.

Artistic style Le Ravin's religious art reflected her Christian beliefs, personal engagement with the Holy Spirit, and her dreams. She created many articulated puppet dolls who could be made to move like the Holy Ghost. Using her "God-given glue", a mix of Elmer's glue and sawdust, Le Ravin made sculptures and tableaux assembled from bones, beads, glitter, stones, shells, flowers, gum, container lids, plastic wrap, and other natural materials and found objects. She reported that the Holy Spirit guided her to see all sorts of shapes and faces in bones and often focused on religious subjects like Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Her themes have also been described as touching on "racism, rape, homelessness, the struggles of women, and other forms of social injustice."

1990 The African Marketplace, Rancho Cienega Park, Los Angeles, CA

1992 Religious Visionaries: Simon Sparrow/Mary Le Ravin. Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL