Marsha Anne Gomez facts for kids

Marsha Anne Gomez (December 24, 1951–1998) was a sculptor, art teacher, and activist. She is best known for her series, Madre del mundo (Mother of the World).

Early life and education

Gomez was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her father, Walter Anthony Gomez, Jr., was from the Canary Islands. Her mother, Anna Lula Gomez, was of Cajun and Choctaw descent.

In 1971, Gomez earned an associate's degree from Nicholls State College, where she majored in special education and minored in art education. She earned a bachelor's degree in art education from University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1981.

Career

Gomez moved to Austin, Texas in 1981. She worked as a sculptor and teacher. Her work was often themed around her indigenous heritage and social justice.

Gomez co-founded the Indigenous Women’s Network and the Foundation for a Compassionate Society.

In 1988, Gomez sculpted the work, Madre Del Mundo (Mother of the World), for a protest on Western Shoshone land near a nuclear test site in Nye County, Nevada. The work was seized by the Bureau of Land Management and later returned after a legal dispute. Gomez replicated the sculpture and placed one copy near Pantex, a weapons plant in Texas. Another copy is located at Casa de Colores in Brownsville, Texas. An additional copy is located at the Temple of the Goddess Spirituality in Indian Springs, Nevada along with a Gomez sculpture of Egyptian goddess Sekhmet.

Death

Gomez was killed by her son, Mekaya, in 1998.