Martha Wright Ambrose (1914-2000)

Book excerpt: In 2003, Scott Veazey purchased the home of his lifelong friend and mentor, New Orleans artist Martha Wright Ambrose, and discovered a treasure trove of her art in a leaky garage. Ambrose's work had been largely forgotten, but a chance encounter between Veazey and award-winning art and architectural historian and writer Roulhac Toledano brought revived interest in her art. Thoroughly researching the artist's life in interviews, published sources, and archives, Toledano and Veazey have filled in the story that is Martha Ambrose: from her formal art education, to her marriage and travels with fellow artist Jack Ambrose, and her career as an artist, teacher, and activist in the New Orleans community. Material collected and put into print here for the first time include information not only on, and examples of, Ambrose's work but also on her context as a twentieth-century Southern Regional artist.