Ada Mae Sharpless

Ada May Sharpless (August 16, 1899 – November 20, 1988) was an American artist and sculptor.

Early life and education

She was born in Hilo, Hawaii, the daughter of missionaries Viola and Benjamin Harry Sharpless, and grew up in Santa Ana, California. She graduated from USC in 1922,[1] studied art at the Otis Art Institute, and continued her studies in Paris for four years during the 1920s, with Antoine Bourdelle.[2][3][4]

Career

During the 1930s she created sculptures for several area parks and associations.[5] She was a member of the California Art Club and the Laguna Beach Art Association.[6][7][8]

She is known for her majestic, cast stone statue of a woman, executed in the Art Deco style, located on the grounds of Echo Park Lake in Echo Park, a neighorhood in the city of Los Angeles. The official name of the statue is "Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles" (Our Queen of the Angels) but its popular name is the "Lady of the Lake". The statue was commissioned in 1934 by the federal Works Project Administration and gifted to the city in 1935.[9][10]

Sharpless also made a full-length stone statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo for the patio of the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.[11] During World War II she worked for Douglas Aircraft in Southern California.[12]


References

  1. ↑ "S. C. Student Wins Honors As Composer of Popular Songs," Southern California Trojan (April 1, 1921): 1.
  2. ↑ Artist Ada May Sharpless next to the Model for her Sculpture 'Nuestra Reina de los Angeles' now in Echo Park, Los Angeles, 1935," Los Angeles Times photographs collection.
  3. ↑ Hadley Meares, "The Lady of the Lake: The Depression-Era Roots of Echo Park's Unofficial Patron Saint," KCET (August 23, 2013).
  4. ↑ "Task Finished by Sculptress," Los Angeles Times (June 1, 1934).
  5. ↑ Moure, Nancy Dustin Wall (1975). Dictionary of art and artists in Southern California before 1930. Glendale, CA: Dustin Publications.
  6. ↑ "MISS ADA MAY SHARPLESS, DAUGHTER OF MR. AND MRS. B H SHARPLESS OF "NEWPORT ROAD, WHO WAS MARRIED IN PARIS ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, TO JEAN LILIENFIELD OF PARIS AND RUMANIA AND WHO WILL CONTINUE HER ART STUDIES IN PROMINENT ATELIERS OF FRANCE". Santa Ana Register. September 21, 1926.
  7. ↑ Arthur Millier, "Art Club Show Below Par," Los Angeles Times (November 16, 1930): B19: "The torso by Miss Sharpless rises...far above the balance of the exhibition."
  8. ↑ Arthur Millier, "Beach Exhibits Studied as Votes Scrap Brews," Los Angeles Times (August 7, 1938): C7.
  9. ↑ "Historic Echo Park Lady of the Lake".
  10. ↑ Joe Mozingo, "Welcoming Back 'Lady of the Lake': Echo Park: Some Residents See the Restoration of the Landmark Statue, Commissioned in 1934, as a Symbol of the Community's Renewal," Los Angeles Times (October 10, 1999): 1.
  11. ↑ "Cabrillo Model Completed: Statue to Stand in Santa Ana Museum," Los Angeles Times (January 19, 1933): A8.
  12. ↑ "Artists Who Work Exhibit," Los Angeles Times (July 4, 1943): C4.
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