Muriel Carrick Moody

Muriel Carrick Moody ( Wilson, 18 March 1907 – 24 December 1991) was a New Zealand commercial artist, welfare worker, sculptor and potter.

Biography Moody was born in Whangārei, New Zealand on 18 March 1907, the second of six children of John Munro Wilson and Mildred Carrick Proude. Her mother was a talented pianist and loved to sketch, and encouraged her children to develop their talents. Moody spent seven years in England, Egypt, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and India setting up residential, recreation and welfare clubs for servicewomen. In 1946 she worked in Japan to open clubs for women of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces, including a Muriel Wilson hostel.

Moody died on 24 December 1991 at Lower Hutt Hospital. Her works of art are held in various private collections in New Zealand, Britain, Switzerland and the United States, as well as in several New Zealand galleries and institutions such as the Dowse Art Museum and the Suter Art Gallery. In addition, a stylised cross of ceramic tiles constructed by Moody is displayed on an exterior wall of the Barber Memorial Chapel at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School in Karori, Wellington.

In 2015, some of her pottery was included in the 50th anniversary exhibition of New Zealand Potters, entitled "Flora Christeller & Friends - A Retrospective Exhibition".

Works of art

Moody's ceramics show an interest in Picasso, and are typically based on the human body, birds, animals or mythical creatures. Not only did she spend time observing the local people, but she also studied art with local experts, such as an Egyptian sculptor while stationed in that country.

Moody explored ceramics as an alternate way to produce sculpture, as opposed to metals casting which was a challenging medium considering the available resources at the time. “She and June Black were the only two ceramicists in Wellington who were working consistently in sculpture during the early years of pottery, and most techniques, particularly with larger pieces, she had had to invent for herself. She builds her figures round a series of steel rods or armatures which are removed when the clay is able to stand up by itself.”

Aside from ceramics, Moody also cast bronze sculptures, and in her later years painted and decorated the pottery of others; just before her death, she also began to experiment with batik methods on silk fabric.