Chandler Wigton, our Associate Director of Events & Studios visited MB in her studio to learn more about her and her practice!
Originally from Nantucket, Massachusetts, MB has been in Albuquerque since the 1980’s. She has been a studio artist at Harwood since 2019, and also did a short stint as a studio artist in the late 90’s, a little after that her daughter attended Escuela for pre-k. She is also a Surface Emerging Artists of NM Alum, participating in the 2020 cohort.
MB had many great art teachers from a young age and attended a number of different colleges before finally landing at UNM and getting a BFA in Art Studio. MB’s approach to education was to value learning a craft or skill from a specific person rather than getting degrees, and although she finished school, she still very much holds that value. One example of this is she held a job as a maritime seamstress making and repairing sails.
What new art are you working on currently?
What is your process?
MB is a craftsperson and has spent much of her art making career creating finely detailed wearable jewelry that requires a high level of attention to detail. In addition to jewelry she also makes art in a number of other different mediums including encaustic painting, found objects, sculpture, sand casting, and textiles.
Lately she is expanding her jewelry practice into a larger installation and sculptural practice. She is pushing her own boundaries of wearable versus non-wearable into the realm of sculpture, still using many of the same materials such as silver, gold, copper, and steel. In these new explorations she is interested in ideas of scale, not only the scale of the sculptural objects themselves, but also their relationship to one another in various installations.
When touring her studio, it is evident that she has honed her skills, craftsmanship, and attention to detail over many years. Talking with MB, it is evident that she wants to continue to grow and push her work into new and unknown places, and the combination of these two things makes her current work feel very exciting and fresh, and full of potential.
What do you get your inspiration from?
Some of the things that came to mind for MB as places of inspiration are science, travelling, being in the wilderness, dreams, fairy tales, and other artists. Some of the artists that came up in our conversation were Richard Serra, Eva Hesse and Cecilia Vicuña. To MB the world is brimming with inspiration.
What music have you been listening to lately?
MB is an adventurous music listener and likes to listen to classical, jazz, blues, folk, and likes things from most every genre. Philip Glass, Nina Simone, and Ballaké Sissoko are some artists she loves and has been listening to lately. She goes to see live jazz at Outpost Performance space and live classical music at Chatter whenever possible.
Do you have any exhibits or exciting projects coming up that you want to share, or past exhibits you want to highlight?
MB is part of a group show at Harwood Art Center called Practice // Portal with work alongside Aziza Murray, Natalie Voelker, and Chelsea Wrightson. This exhibit runs from August 7 to September 13, 2025. She has two installations in the gallery that are examples of the work that came from opening up her jewelry practice into sculpture. There are jewelry pieces that are still wearable, as demonstrated by photographs in the gallery separate from the installation, but also exist as art pieces on their own. There are also some other mixed media pieces that are part of the installations, including plaster sand casts, encaustic, and photography.
