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Mary Fuller: Knocking On Heaven’s Door

One day before too long, a journalist will craft an obit about the artist known as Mary Fuller who lived much of her life on Sonoma Mountain with her husband and fellow artist Robert (Mac) McChesney, an abstract expressionist, a printmaker and lots more. Also, one day a wordsmith will write a biography of Mary Fuller McChesney, who called herself a “sculptor – writer,” married Mac in 1949, and three-years later joined her muscle to his muscle and built the house they called home for decades.

The house is still there, though the McChesney’s don’t live there anymore. Mac died in 2008 at the age of 95. He was still making art in his 90s. Mary is 96 and lives in one of those institutions where men and women go when they’re near the end of their lives and need extensive medical help. The place where Mary now occupies a bed in a small room is called “a skilled nursing facility.”

On the walls there are several of her recent drawings, one of which says, “Take it easy, but take it.” Another says, “Don't Get Mad, Get Even.” No one at the nursing facility seems to know anything about the McChesneys, their radicalism, their bohemian lifestyle or their commitment to art and community that lasted all though the Depression, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the madness of the Nixon years, the Bush years, and the Clinton years.

This essay doesn’t pretend to be a capsule biography of Fuller or an obit, either. After all, Mary is still alive. I know that because I recently spent part of a morning with her in Petaluma. Mary could barely hear me, even when I bent down and spoke directly into her ear. I’m not sure how clearly she saw me, either, but I sat down on the edge of her bed and read some of my poems to her, while she held my “free” hand and listened attentively. “Are these your poems?” she wanted to know. “Well, yes,” I said. She smiled and added, “They’ve very good.” Then we talked about Sonoma Mountain and about Mac, who loved to hunt. For years, Mary and Mac ate a lot of venison.

That’s when Sonoma Mountain was a wild place. It still is a wild place, especially on the higher grounds above the dairy farms. At 96, Mary is still wild at heart, as the sketches on the wall suggest. When she was a young woman, she read lefty books by authors like George Bernard Shaw and got in trouble with teachers at school. In the 1970s, she lambasted Christo’s so-called ”Running Fence” that stretched across Sonoma County farmland and all the way to the 101.

Mary told my friend and fellow reporter, Charles Schultz, that Christo’s fence was “just European bullshit.” That’s when many art critics thought it was one of the wonders of the civilized world. Mary also told Schultz that pre-Colombian art, some of which she saw during a sojourn in Mexico, inspired her “more than anything contemporary.”

Schultz’s interview with Mary was published in the Point Reyes Light in August 2016. In a recent phone conversation with me, Schultz reminded me that Mary and Mac refused to sign the infamous loyalty oaths of the anti-communist era and lost their jobs as public school teachers in Richmond, California. Mary wrote pulp fiction with titles like Asking for Trouble. Those words might be carved on her tombstone. She’s never been reluctant to look or ask for trouble.

According to Karen Petersen, a longtime librarian and an art historian who helped curate a show of her work, Mary wanted to shock the bourgeoisie and also to be accepted by the bourgeoisie, though Karen added, “that was more true of Mac than it was of Mary.” No one did more to promote Mac than Mary. She wrote a whole book about him titled, Robert McChesney: An American Painter. Mary was Mac’s muse, wife, biggest fan and near constant companion. When she had to, she went downhill and worked in the Petaluma poultry industry to make money and keep her and Mac afloat. In World War II she took a job as a welder in the Richmond shipyards. She liked to work with her hands, which led her to clay, ceramics and sculpture.

On the day I visited Mary in the hills above Petaluma, a mutual friend lent me a copy of one of her books, A Period of Exploration: San Francisco 1945-1950, which was published by the Oakland Museum, and that emerged from interviews she did with artists such as Joan Brown, Alfred Frankenstein, William Morehouse, Hassel Smith and Jean Varda. Mary knew all of them and many more.

In a note at the front of the book, she explains that “spontaneity and candor” are advantages of “the interview technique,” but that “there is a great deal of inequality of ability among people to express themselves verbally.” Mary never had trouble expressing herself verbally. Starting as a teenager, she said whatever she wanted to say, wherever and whenever. On the topic of exhibiting her work along with Mac’s, she told reporter and art critic, Gretchen Giles, "We showed together at Bolles Gallery and there was a big write-up about it and it was all about Mac, and in the last paragraph there was a sentence like, 'And Mary was in the show, too.'”

“A period of exploration,” could serve as a major theme for Mary’s life, though she didn’t have any one single period of exploration. For nearly nine decades, she explored, expounded and expressed herself emphatically. These days, art critics tend to say that Mac is more famous than Mary. But it remains to be seen whether that view will obtain in five, ten or in 20-years from now. When there is a major retrospective of Mary’s work, the curators will have to go to the McChesney’s property near the top of Sonoma Mountain. More than one hundred pieces of Mary’s work dot the landscape. Indeed, some of them seem to spring from the mountain itself. Two sculptors, Ilana Spector and Mark Grieve, carry on the McChesney’s legacy. For 13 years they lived next door to Mac and Mary. They still live and work on the property that’s adjacent to the land that Mary owns. Spector is a lawyer as well as an artist; Grieve is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute and a veteran of Burning Man.

Mary’s work, which is outside the house that she and Mac built, is in bronze and in cement. It’s both abstract and representational: mythological, erotic, and almost always pushing boundaries, and challenging received ideas about what art should or shouldn’t be. My favorites are two large lionesses, one fierce and the other gentle that express two sides of Mary. Some of her pieces have moss growing on them. The moss seems to enhance their power.

Ilana Spector gave me a guided tour and told me, “Mary wanted big and bold. She’d take mythological figures like Leda and like the Minotaur and put her own twist on them. She turned the Minotaur, who was depicted by the ancient Greeks as a half-man and half-bull, into a cow.” Spector added, “Mary challenged gender stereotypes.” Mark Grieve also talked about Mary’s work and added that, “she could be very eloquent and at the same time curse like a sailor. She was very tough and she was all about public art.“

Grieve installed one of Mary’s works, “Leda and her Friend,” at the nursing facility in Petaluma. It was too erotic, too explicitly sexual. Someone covered it up and then Grieve was forced to removed it. Not surprisingly, Mary’s work still has the power to shock. One wonders what St. Peter might say to her at the Pearly Gates of Heaven, and what she’ll say to him.

41 Comments

  1. Kate Coleman March 13, 2019

    Jonah well done! Also lread and liked your recent review of Don Cox’s memoir— enough to buybthe book! cheers

  2. Jonah Raskin March 13, 2019

    Thanks. Much appreciated. I enjoyed writing about Mary Fuller and DC. You might feel vindicated by his book, though that might not be what you want or need. I am trying to downsize but it’s hard to throw stuff away. You might have a similar problem. All the best, Jonah

  3. Paula March 13, 2019

    This is a wonderful read Jonah and you did a great thing by visiting her and reading her own work to her.

  4. Jonah Raskin March 14, 2019

    Paula –

    Thank you greatly. I didn’t say this explicitly in what I wrote, but what I was thinking is this: that there have been waves of people like Mary and Mac who have come to Sonoma County and have lived and worked here and made a difference not only here but in wider circles. Jonah

  5. Carole Raimondi March 14, 2019

    Bravo Jonah for keeping the McChesneys ( and mainly Mary) alive!!!

  6. Jonah Raskin March 14, 2019

    Thanks Carole. Yes, she is still alive.

  7. Bob March 14, 2019

    Among her many writings, Mary Fuller also wrote under a pen name a book called “Courier of Desire” a piece about a woman reporter working for a paper which was very similar to Petaluma’s Argus Courier. Mary incorporated into the book a character based on John Seltz who was active in the Vietnam Day Committee and who figured in many Bay Area anti war activities before moving to Oregon.

    • Susan miller March 15, 2019

      Jonah
      You are doing good work.
      Keeping Mary and her husband’s legacy alive.
      Susan miller

    • Bob April 23, 2020

      Jonah and other friends of Mary and Robert, I couldn’t remember the pen name under which Mary wrote the “Courier of Desire” but a Humboldt County grower and ace researcher found it available online yesterday and ordered the only available copy of Melissa Franklin’s 1969 tome.

  8. Jonah Raskin March 14, 2019

    Great to know this. Thanks for the information.

  9. Toni Novak March 14, 2019

    Thank you, Jonah, for this retrospective. I spent a number of raucous evenings drinking with Mary and Mac, sometimes with John and Julie Seltz, and my then-husband, Irv Sutley. Mary and Mac enjoyed life, had strong opinions, and opened the eyes of a young woman fresh off a Sacramento farm to the wider world. Their place on the Mountain was wonderful, and I felt so privileged to call them friends. I have a collection somewhere of their annual New Year’s cards, which I will take when I visit Mary next week with Ilana Spector.

  10. jonah Raskin March 14, 2019

    Toni -Thank you for these memories. I remember you and Irv from Cotati; we once did an “action” so to speak at Bohemian Grove when the Big Wigs were there and we held up signs and might have shouted some things, too. Peace & Freedom Party days, if I remember correctly. I am so happy to know you knew Mary and Mac back then. Have a good visit with Mary and Ilana. To coin a phrase, “it’s a small world.”

  11. Jonah Raskin March 15, 2019

    Susan – Thanks for your comment, Jonah

  12. izzy March 20, 2019

    Mary told my friend and fellow reporter, Charles Schultz, that Christo’s fence was “just European bullshit.”

    She hit the bullseye there.

  13. jonah Raskin March 20, 2019

    Thanks Izzy. Good to hear from you!

  14. Chester Arnold April 16, 2019

    Hello Jonah
    It was good to see you up on McChesney Mountain. Although I didn’t know Mac and Mary well, we celbrated the 4th of July at Varda Landing inn Sausalito many years between 1978 and 1988. It was the waning of an age of great character and non-conformism ( a term almost impossible to use today). You are a brilliant writer, and have captured a great deal in this essay- I think both Mac and Mary (she may know it yet) would be toasting its appearance with something strong and with a chaser. Thanks for this, and so much more.

  15. Jonah Raskin April 16, 2019

    Chester, so good to see you up there. From now on I will call it McChesney Mountain. I believe you do your best to be a great character and non-conformist.

  16. Anthony Shafton February 1, 2020

    Would like to contact Mary Fuller for a book I’m writing about her and Mac’s friend Richard Guy Walton. Please forward.

    • Irv February 1, 2020

      I don’t believe Mary is doing interviews at this time. Suggest you get in touch with Ilana Spector and/or Jonah Raskin.

      • Anthony Shafton February 1, 2020

        Thank you. How do I get in touch with those individuals? Feel free to give them my email address.

        • Irv February 1, 2020

          Because we are using Word Press where posters email addresses are not visible, in order to discuss the Jonah Raskin story on Mary Fuller I have several suggestions.

          Make another comment which includes your own email address which will make it visible to all who are following Jonah’s story. If you are comfortable doing so also include your phone number with area code.
          Go back and carefully read Raskin’s story which may let you know why Fuller is not to my knowledge giving interviews at this time.

  17. Anthony Shafton February 1, 2020

    I would like to hear from Jonah Raskin and/or Ilana Spector about Mary Fuller, in connection with a book I’m writing about McChesney friend artist Richard Guy Walton. I’m in Reno. You can tell Mary that I’m in frequent contact with Walton’s widow Vivian in connection with my project. You might also tell her that I got hooked on Pyramid Lake the same way Mac did, by reading Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s novel, “The City of Trembling Leaves.” My last book, “The Nevada They Knew,” is a double biography of Clark and his best friend, artist Robert Caples. I’m at ashafton12@gmail.com.

  18. Pat Kittle April 23, 2020

    “Art”??

    :-)

  19. Jean & Bernd Kroeber May 1, 2020

    Hello, just read your words and was taken aback many years. We were friends of Mary and Mac and spent many drunken riotous evenings together in the ’70’s and 80’s til we moved to Germany in 1985.

    • Anthony Shafton May 1, 2020

      Anyone with anecdotes about the McChesneys’ friend artist Richard Guy Walton of Nevada for a book about him will be appreciated.

    • Jonah Raskin May 1, 2020

      Good to hear from you, all the best!!

    • Dita Rudinow May 4, 2020

      I believe that my parents, Jack and Mattie Rudinow met Mary in the Kaiser shipyards where they all worked. Mendocino artist Emmy Lou Packard worked there also. I have fond memories of dinners and lunches with Mac and Mary up on Sonoma Mountain and the long drive up. Mac’s studio was fascinating for a child. In his studio Mac kept a typesetters case, originally used to store each character for the press, he kept the small containers full of bones, each slot sorted by type and size so he could pick just the right one to put in a painting. Mary’s sculptures in process and complete throughout the grounds.

  20. Laurie Osborne September 19, 2020

    Jonah Raskin, I was thinking about her today and found your article here. I met her at her home one day a few years ago. She even gave me one of the metal plaques she had someone make for her, printed with one of her drawings. I was so in awe of her and all of her work. I would think of her when I went to the Petaluma Library, where some of her work is installed.

    Is she still in the assisted care facility?

  21. Jonah Raskin September 19, 2020

    Laurie

    I believe that Mary is still in the assisted living place. I have not heard otherwise. If and when I do I will let you know. Thanks

  22. Jonah Raskin September 19, 2020

    Yes, heard just now that “Mary is still with us,” as a mutual friend described her, and in the same room and same bed that she was in when I last visited her in 2019. She is able to connect with friends on a computer occasionally and apparently in good spirits.

    • Leon Atkinson-Derman August 17, 2021

      Hi Jonah,
      Mary is my great aunt that I never remember meeting! I’ve heard a bit about her from my mom and was amazed to learn that she had/has art in a museum in Oaxaca (I lived in Mexico for several years). Do you know if she is still with us and able/willing to see visitors? I suspect that she would be an inspiration to my three kids.
      Thanks!
      Leon

      • Irv August 17, 2021

        Leon,

        Mary Fuller McChesney is still with us in body but suffers from dementia and is living in a nursing home across the valley from where she and Robert had their place on Sonoma Mountain Road. Scroll through the comments above and show them to your children. Also search out Youtube and Wikipedia articles about Mary and her husband Robert McChesney.

        Ilana Spector, Toni Novak, and Jonah Raskin have each visited Mary and they continue to memorialize her life’s work. You may email me at irvsutley@yahoo.com (irvsutley AT yahoo.com) and I will pass along your inquiries to any one or all three of them.

  23. Leon Atkinson-Derman August 17, 2021

    Thanks for letting me know and sorry to hear I’m late! Mary’s sister (my grandmother Mabel) suffered from dimentia in her final years as well. I’ll reach out via email – thanks.
    Leon

  24. Jonah Raskin August 17, 2021

    Mary is 99. Her house and property are up for sale. That’s the most recent news I have.

  25. Marina Bautrel-Hubert October 26, 2021

    Mary’s 99th birthda was on October 20th. To my knowledge, there were no visitors, no acknowledgement. I am one of her nurses. If anyone cares, please, come and visit her. She needs you.
    Thank you

  26. Sarah Thomas November 1, 2021

    Mary dated my dad when they were at Berkeley and the shipyards, I just found out. He was Bill Rubenstein then, later Avrum. I just stumbled on a Smithsonian interview in an archive while randomly Googling my dad’s name today, as I sometimes do. He died in 1995. I didn’t even know about Two Fish Pottery until today. He would be 103 if he’d lived.

    I’m so sorry she’s alone. Please give her this note and wish her a happy birthday from San Francisco. And thank you Marina for being her nurse. I’m glad you got through this terrible pandemic time.

  27. Sarah Thomas November 4, 2021

    The Mary Fuller sculptures at the SF Ocean Beach Wastewater facility (Great Highway and Sloat) have been removed temporarily but I got a note today from the project manager and they will be replaced once the project is done.

  28. Irv Sutley November 4, 2021

    Mary and Robert’s home high up on Sonoma Mountain Rd is on the auction block – up for sale last offer I heard of was for $1,300,000. Don’t know if it closed. Some Mega Millionaire will take possession of the house, the old bath house, the decking, and the studio that Bob and Mary built themselves. There is a huge sloped garden area of Mary Fuller McChesney’s sculptures and castings. Will these treasured art works be forever closed to public access?
    I remember all the art in the house but it was closed to all when Mary’s loving neighbor, Ilana Spector gave a tribute party for friends of Bob and Mary. Ilana raised money there to help offset some Mary’s large financial obligations incurred when Mary fought for preservation of open space on the upper portion of Sonoma Mountain Road.

  29. Marina February 7, 2022

    Dear, Sarah Thomas,
    The interview is simply incredible! What a great find. I will share it with my fellow nurses and will talk to Mary.
    Thank you,
    Marina

  30. Kym Matossian December 26, 2023

    Dear Jonah et all,

    Thank you for these insights about Mac and Mary. I wish I could have met them but trust that their place on the mountain, artwork and spirit are alive and will thrive again soon. It is our mission to create the artist retreat center that Mary always imagined. I’d love to update you, Jonah, reach out and we can connect.

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