Mary Fischer began her artistic career after serving in US Air Force Intelligence and then working for several environmental consulting agencies in Austin, Texas. For her 40th birthday, she and a friend took clay lessons at a local facility. She quickly learned the potter’s wheel was not for her. However, she loved hand building and she’s been dedicated to that art form ever since.

It is not surprising that the focus of her work is buildings. Early on Fischer wanted to study architecture, but as she says, “I didn’t have the math.” The buildings started as boxes. Lids became roofs, feet and chimneys appeared, and things go on from there, changing from season to season. Fischer builds pieces from slabs and extruded pieces of clay, at times combining both techniques. She often makes paper patterns to work out design problems – “so the buildings don’t fall down,” she says. The model is then taken apart and used to cut out pieces from slabs of clay and then reassembled. The process is akin to playing with Legos

Fischer uses various printmaking techniques to transfer images – ones she’s taken in her travels and others from archives - onto her buildings. She finishes them with mason stain.

IN HER OWN WORDS

“I make what I do in clay because I want to and I like to. It makes me happy.”