The Artistic Journey of Marianne Appel
Marianne Appel was an American artist and a member of the Woodstock artists colony. Her diverse career spanned painting, puppetry, and illustration. During the Great Depression, she painted murals for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Fine Arts Section. Her work earned her recognition through exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Her paintings are held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
In 1936, she married Austin Mecklem, and the couple resided in the artists' community in Woodstock, New York. In 1937, she was part of a group of twelve artists selected to travel to Ketchikan, Alaska, to create paintings of the territory. Her work from this period included "Ebb-Tide, Juneau," which is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection. In 1940, her painting "Winter '39" was purchased for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
From Canvas to Character Design
Following her marriage to Carl Harms in 1960, she adopted the professional name Marianne Harms. This period marked a transition into work as an illustrator and puppet designer. She worked with Bil Baird and later collaborated with Jim Henson, contributing to the design of The Muppets. Her technical contributions included:
Her design work also extended to the production The Dark Crystal, where she served on the team that created the Podlings.
