Losing my mother last Christmas felt like being hit by two buses: a double-impact life change I’ll never get used to. The only thing that sustains me now is working to establish MSeum, the world’s first museum to be built by women, in tribute to my multi-talented mom, Marta Szabo (nee Marta Weisz) who embodied creativity, with ART at the very center of her name and soul.
Now, what are the odds that, soon after losing her, I would encounter another great artist named Marta for whom ART is also central to her essence? That the universe would send me exactly the beautiful, talented spirit—a fine-art fairy godmother, if you will—I needed to help me survive my crippling grief?
Here’s how it happened: Reading an Instagram comment about my Marta’s paintings —“Beautiful art!”— I reached out to the comment’s author, Marta Thoma Hall, multitalented painter, sculptor, and installation artist based in California. Getting to know this amazing Marta, a.k.a MTH, first by phone and then in person, I would learn that she had lost her daughter Michele just two months before I lost my Mom, and that she personifies the maternal creative spirit —the artist mother— in a way that is singularly, astonishingly beautiful.
Marta Thoma Hall’s loving support of her sister artists is an inspiration to any feminist art aficionado. A perfect example of what hipster historian Hall Rockefeller calls “Matron of the Arts,” MTH never hesitates to celebrate the talents of others, inviting them to collaborate and brainstorm, generously collecting the work of living artists for her non-profit Hall Art + Technology (HAT) Foundation, founded in 2021, which now holds 300+ artworks as of this writing. MTH is the best possible companion if you want to get the most from a museum visit: our trip to MoMA and The Cloisters was one of the highlights of the past year for me. MTH’s museum musings, worthy of their own recorded tour, brought back a part of my childhood that I thought was lost forever.
Her own work is proudly represented by San Francisco’s Anglim Trimble Gallery, which plans a solo retrospective next year. She’s super busy, yet MTH always makes time for artists she cares about: her creative confrères. “Conversation with artists whom I’m profoundly interested in feeds my soul,” she explains. “No one gets good alone. We need to be challenged and stimulated by peers.” Women artists speak to MTH with exquisite eloquence: “I feel strongly about the need for women artists to be given attention and support. The voice of women has been stifled since the beginning of time. Today, it is artists of color and women artists who are creating the most exciting art, because they bring new ideas, materials, and ways of looking. I get a lot of pleasure out of elevating these voices and educating the public, especially students, about their vision and talent.”
In 2004, MTH created a breathtaking statue titled Go Mama! Commissioned by the City of Palo Alto, she’s modeled on a hand-sewn doll the artist had acquired in Mexico for her daughter. Go Mama! depicts a sweetly smiling rag doll come to life, running—or is she skating on thin ice? Mama’s limbs end with puffy, mitten-like extremities; her torso is occupied by a beautiful human face wearing a surprised expression, like an emoji moon. A giant, infant marsupial in her mother’s pouch, the big baby watches—trusting and trepidatious—as Mama deftly navigates the treacherous path of life like a seasoned triathlete. Go Mama! is a moving tribute to motherhood that transcends time and bridges cultural differences. In short: a masterpiece.
MSeum has a soft spot for mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters. One of MSeum’s top-priority initiatives is our spiritual project:
a non-sectarian sacred space for parents who have lost children. Situated outdoors, partly above ground and partly below, the Vilomah Chapel takes its name from the Sanskrit word for “against the natural order.” If the grief of losing a mother feels like being hit by two buses, the loss of a child must feel like four, yet until recently there was no word—such as orphan or widow—to convey this sad status. And so, around the world, grieving parents have adopted the Sanskrit word vilomah to articulate their shocking, indescribable grief.
MSeum is honored that Marta Thoma Hall has donated the maquette of Go Mama! to be the nucleus of our growing art collection. The plan is to raise a second casting of this powerful sculpture, to stand guard over the Vilomah Chapel: a strong, silent companion for grieving parents as they pause to meditate in the embrace of Mother Nature.
While funds are raised to realize the chapel, the Go Mama! maquette will be on view in November, the centerpiece of “Vision + Visibility,” a concept exhibition at the Paul Larsen Gallery (paullarsengallery.com), celebrating the birth of MSeum and featuring many artworks that invite touch. “To me, Go Mama! represents innocence, curiosity, balance and strength,” says Paul Larsen. “It’s a beautiful piece.” I couldn’t agree more. G&S
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