Appel joined the Woodstock Art Association (WAA) and continued to study her craft under such teachers as Peppino Mangravite, Henry Mattson, Henry Lee McFee, Charles Rosen, and Judson Smith.[2] Appel's painting "Shade Trees", completed in 1936 for a project in Ulster County, New York, was praised by New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewell.[11] Later that year, on August 1, 1936, at the Appel's camp in Bedford Village, New York, she married Austin Mecklem[5] and the couple began living at the artists' community in Woodstock, New York.[12] The following year, the new couple were part of a group of 12 artists selected to travel to Ketchikan, Alaska, to create paintings to familiarize Americans about the various territories and states in the country. The artists were divided into smaller groups, with Appel and Mecklem's group also consisting of Merlin Pollock[13] and his wife Barbara Pank[14] and John Edwin Walley and his wife Jano Walley[13][15][16] working in the Juneau area.[17] The smaller groups were sent to different areas to paint and together produced over 100 paintings, most of which were later lost in a fire. Poor weather forced them to return early to Ketchikan.[13]
In 1938, Appel had a solo show of oil paintings at the Walker Gallery in Manhattan featuring her works done in Alaska[18] and won the Woodstock Art Association's annual prize.[2] She had works exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art beginning in 1938 through 1944 and at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1938 to 1942.[2] The book American Painting Today was released in 1939 by the Oxford University Press and featured an entry on Appel's works, along with other prominent American artists like Thomas Hart Benton, John Sloan and Grant Wood.[19] In 1940, a watercolor competition was held throughout the U.S. to select works for the U.S. Marine Hospital, which had formerly been the Carville Leprosarium.[20] Of the 300 works selected, three were by Appel, including "Dear Mountain Trail", "Junction", and "Ebb Tide—Juneau".[21] That year, her painting "Winter '39" was purchased for the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[22] Her works were also selected for an exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in both 1940 and 1941.[2] Appel won a commission from the WPA to paint the mural for the post office in Middleport, New York in 1941.[23] Her painting, "Rural Highway", featured a man and woman doing chores, on a lonely farm isolated on their homestead with nothing surrounding them but the sky and the distant horizon, cut through by an empty vanishing road.[24] The following year, some of her works were featured in the American Federation of Arts' traveling show.[2]
Mecklem and Appel were hired in 1943 to paint a mural for the Wrangell, Alaskapost office. The work, "Old Town in Alaska" was completed in New York and shipped on October 19, 1943, by train. It took until December 1943 to arrive in Wrangell[25] and was installed on October 20, 1944.[26] That same year, one of Appel's paintings, "Juneau, Alaska", which depicted the coastal town at the foot of Mount Juneau, was featured in Life in the April 24th issue.[17] In October, she had seascapes exhibited as part of a group showing held at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh's exhibition "Painting in the United States, 1944".[27] In addition to painting, Appel also wrote children's stories, complete with illustrations. One, "The Story of Juliet" (1945), appears in her papers housed at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art.[28]
Appel designed a war memorial for the Woodstock, New York community village green. Her project was unanimously accepted by the War Memorial Committee and it was to be installed for a commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day on December 7, 1947.[29] Austin Mecklem died on October 7, 1951, after a lengthy illness.[12] For two years after his death, Appel continued living in Woodstock and helped plan a memorial exhibit for his works. In 1953, the artist's community hosted a retrospective memorial to Mecklem and Jeanne Magafan, another member of the community who had recently died.[30]
Designing and illustration career
After the memorial show closed, Appel and her two daughters,[28] Merrill Mecklem and Sarah Greer Mecklem,[31] moved to New York City, where she began work as an illustrator of children's books. She also worked as a puppeteer with Bil Baird and wrote a second juvenile fiction story called "Perlydew".[28] In 1960, Appel married Carl Harms, who was an executive with Actors' Equity, as well as an actor and puppeteer. After her marriage, Appel changed her professional name to Marianne Harms.[31]
Emerson, Jimmy (2013). "Post Office Mural-Middleport, NY". Living New Deal. Berkeley, California: University of California, Department of Geography. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
Jones, Emily (March 15, 2013). "WAA Timeline". WAAMBlog. Woodstock, New York: Woodstock Artists Association & Museum. Archived from the original on December 27, 2014. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
Mason, Margaret (2014). "Merlin F. Pollock Papers". Syracuse University Archives. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University. Archived from the original on September 29, 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
Ryan, Diane (2008). Rinder, D. (ed.). "John Walley collection of visual materials". Chicago Historical Society Media. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Historical Society. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
"The Muppet Show". The Emmys. North Hollywood, California: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. June 30, 2011. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
"Muppet show: Loretta Swit". University of Maryland Libraries. College Park, Maryland: The Jim Henson Works. 2006. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
"Personal Paragraphs". Scarsdale Inquirer. Scarsdale, New York. August 23, 1924. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
"Personal Paragraphs". Scarsdale Inquirer. Scarsdale, New York. November 29, 1929. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
"Post Office Mural-Wrangell AK". Living New Deal. Berkeley, California: University of California, Department of Geography. 2013. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
"Sarah Lawrence Graduates". Scarsdale Inquirer. Scarsdale, New York. June 8, 1934. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
"Winter '39". Met Museum. New York City, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1940. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
