While I was (eventually) able to get my timeline to load on this blog, it’s much nicer looking (at least on my computer) here, so I would suggest looking at it there for easier reading.
In general I found working with TimelineJS really great, after getting over the initial fear that it wouldn’t work. It felt like a leap of faith to input everything into a googlesheet without any output until the content was uploaded. However, once I got a feel for the program it was pretty easy and I think creates a really nice-looking end product. I chose Mary Fuller McChesney as my subject because the library that I volunteer at just received a large collection of her sketches, photographs, personal correspondence and other items. I had seen a few of her sculptures but didn’t know much about her so I thought it would be fun to learn about her through this project.
Mary Fuller McChesney isn’t a particularly well-know artist so it took some work to track down good photos to use and enough biographical information to fill my timeline. I started a basic google search of her name after finding very little information about her on museum or library sites. Unfortunately Mary was married to a male artist who garnered more attention and documentation than she did, she often is presented as “Mac’s wife” and not as an artist in her own right. I found her biographical information via wikipedia, a webpage devoted to women artists in the west, a blurb from a used bookstore about a book that she wrote that they were selling, from an article in an architectural magazine, and from a local paper that did a pretty detailed article about her life. Likewise I threw a pretty wide net when looking for photographs. I decided to use general pictures for a few of the spots in the timeline (Wichita and Stockton) because I didn’t have access to pictures of her early life. Similarly I found a photograph of a male student at UC Berkeley the year she attended and a photo of another “Wendy Welder” because I was unable to find pictures of her in those years. In a bit of luck, while searching for photographs of California Faience I found a sculpture attributed to an unknown “M.F.” produced at the pottery studio during the years she worked there. While it’s not certain that she made the piece I thought it was possible and therefore a nice tie-in. Once Mary began showing her work it became easier to find photographs and more thorough biographical information. While looking through her collection at the library I came across several mystery novel manuscripts written under different names and I was excited to find my explanation during my research for this timeline. I found myself wishing there were a way to include a slideshow of images instead of a single for some spots in my timeline (so that I could provide more examples of her work) but that might become visually overwhelming. In all this was a satisfying experience and I look forward to using this tool again in the future.
References
Lake Chapala Artists. (2015, February 12). Sculptor and author Mary Fuller McChesney found inspiration in Ajijic in the 1950s. Retrieved April 09, 2022, from https://lakechapalaartists.com/?p=1726
Lake Chapala Artists. (2015, March 2). Joe Rayter’s “A Stab in the Dark”, a murder mystery set in Guadalajara. Retrieved April 09, 2022, from https://lakechapalaartists.com/?p=1325
Mary Fuller (Sculptor). (2022, April 2). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fuller_(sculptor)
Swan’s Fine Books. (n.d.). McChesney, Mary Fuller: A period of exploration 1945-1950. Retrieved April 09, 2022, from https://www.swansfinebooks.com/pages/books/21070204/mary-fuller-mcchesney/a-period-of-exploration-san-francisco-1945-1950
Weinstein, D. (2015) Fierceness within: Immersed in nature–the art of Northern California sculptor Mary Fuller McChesney. Eichler Network. https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/fierceness-within
Women Artists of the American West. (n.d). It’s all about the apple, or is it? Retrieved April 09, 2022, from https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/rueffschool/waaw/ressler/artists/fullerstat.html