Martie Zelt (1930-2023)

Martie Zelt, *Heart Felt*, 2016, handmade paper, textiles, drawing, collagraph, 31" x 30", (shown in RAiR's 50th anniversary exhibition at RM in 2017).

Martie Zelt (RAiR 1982-83) passed away on May 11, 2023, in Roswell.

Memorial info:

Sunday, June 11, 2023, 4 PM.

Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art

Join friends for green chili enchiladas and Mexican beer, a display of Martie's work, and lots of memories.

Bring a side dish if you wish, and send any pictures to be printed for the display to nancy@roswellamoca.org.

Obituary:

Martha “Martie” Zelt

November 16, 1930 - May 11, 2023

 Born in western Pennsylvania during the Great Depression, Martie Zelt graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the 1950s and was dedicated to making art her entire life. She settled in Madrid, Spain in 1955, illustrated two children's books and met the post Spanish Civil War generation of writers at tertulias in the Café Gijon. Martie published a small review of poetry with the poet/anthologist Rafael Millan Pinillosm, and a few years later the couple emigrated to Brazil. Her first solo show in Copacabana was reviewed by Poet Laureate Manuel Bandeira.  On return to the U.S. in 1961, Martie created large geometric screenprints and was the first artist in Philadelphia to use photoscreen techniques in fine art prints. In 1976 after making paper with Joseph Wilfer, she left behind hard edges and began making each impression a unique work by incorporating other media, even machine stitching, in her editions.  Martie began teaching in Philadelphia in the 1960s, including for the Ford Foundation-funded ¨Prints in Progress¨ program at the Print Club (now the Print Center). In 1968 she was hired as an instructor by both the Pennsylvania Academy and Philadelphia College of Art (now, University of the Arts.) In 1982, she first came to this area having been awarded the year-long Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (RAiR) grant. Afterward, she returned to teaching on the East Coast and traveled throughout the U.S. to give workshops and lectures. Her work was included in the Brooklyn Museum’s publication "Thirty Years of American Printmaking."

Martie returned for a second year at RAiR in the late 1980s and stayed in Roswell - teaching part-time at ENMU-R and at the Roswell Museum, and doing computer page design for local printers. She designed and created a 32-foot mosaic mural for the Civic Center after it was built, recruiting local people of all ages to help. She then recruited members of the Pecos Valley Potters Guild and the Roswell Museum’s Ceramics Department to help her create a hand-crafted tile mural for Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge depicting animal habitats.  Over her lifetime, Martie traveled many times to Mexico and even set up a papermaking studio in Veracruz (2008-09) on a Fulbright Grant. In 2011 she was an invited artist at the VI Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil Conference and Exhibition. Locally, a retrospective of her work was held at the Roswell Museum in 1998, and another solo exhibition was also held there in 2013. Her artwork is represented by Warehouse 110 in Magdalena, NM. Numerous museum collections hold Martie’s work including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Albuquerque Museum, Yale University, Brooklyn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro North Carolina, and locally at the Roswell Museum and Anderson Museum, just to name a few. She printed at the renowned Tamarind Institute and exhibited there, as well as in many other group exhibitions. For a full listing of Martie’s extensive artistic accomplishments, please visit www.martiezelt.com.

Martie was able to live in her artful, lusciously landscaped home thanks to the care from Jose Rivera and Alina Sebellos. She had a special place in her heart for the RAiR Program, the Roswell Museum, the Assurance Home, cats, the homeless, and was always in hopes that Roswell would again begin recycling. Please make donations in Martie’s name to any group making the world a better place.

RAIR StaffMay 13, 2023