Few artists involve themselves in every phase of the art profession. Mary Phillips Coker promoted
and represented other artists and served on committees and boards of art organizations in the U.S.
and Canada before casting her own artistic images in bronze. Understanding that artists need to engage and draw inspiration from other creative individuals in aesthetic settings, she organized art programs in a variety of stunning locations from Virginia to Beijing, China.
Mary Phillips Coker's earliest memories of artistic inspiration are of
childhood trips to the shore of South Carolina, north of Charleston at
Brookgreen Gardens on the plantation estate of American sculptor,
Anna Hyatt Huntington. Seeing monumental equestrian figures
carved in white marble and cast in bronze at an early age set in
motion a lifetime independent study of form and light. As a sculptor,
Mary is self-taught by studied observations of living forms and
works by Camille Claudel, Rodin, St. Gauden, and Tessa Pullen.
and represented other artists and served on committees and boards of art organizations in the U.S.
and Canada before casting her own artistic images in bronze. Understanding that artists need to engage and draw inspiration from other creative individuals in aesthetic settings, she organized art programs in a variety of stunning locations from Virginia to Beijing, China.
Mary Phillips Coker's earliest memories of artistic inspiration are of
childhood trips to the shore of South Carolina, north of Charleston at
Brookgreen Gardens on the plantation estate of American sculptor,
Anna Hyatt Huntington. Seeing monumental equestrian figures
carved in white marble and cast in bronze at an early age set in
motion a lifetime independent study of form and light. As a sculptor,
Mary is self-taught by studied observations of living forms and
works by Camille Claudel, Rodin, St. Gauden, and Tessa Pullen.
Professionally, Mary worked as a graphic artist on the excavations of the Akhenaten Temple at Karnak on the East bank of the River Nile. Her fieldwork responsibilities as an Egyptologist
to record hieroglyphic script and her experience in line drawings of topography and scale photography developed her eye for detail, structure, size, and proportion. Her degree in ancient Near Eastern languages and history from the University of Toronto shaped her innate inclination to the logic of beauty and style. It was here in her formative years that the marriage of art and academics secured a place in her destiny and began to inspire and empower her creative spirit to produce, and to seek out and to engage with all things beautiful in form and meaning.
Mary Phillips Coker's realistic works in bronze have been represented by the Cross Gate Gallery in Saratoga, New York and Lexington, Kentucky. Her sculpture and portrait photography are in private collections in the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, and China. Her bronzes are on public view at the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia, and in the permanent collection of the Museum of Hounds and Hunting in Leesburg, Virginia by donation of the estate of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and at Windsor Castle, England, in the permanent collection of Queen Elizabeth II.
All images on this website are copyright protected © Mary Phillips Coker
to record hieroglyphic script and her experience in line drawings of topography and scale photography developed her eye for detail, structure, size, and proportion. Her degree in ancient Near Eastern languages and history from the University of Toronto shaped her innate inclination to the logic of beauty and style. It was here in her formative years that the marriage of art and academics secured a place in her destiny and began to inspire and empower her creative spirit to produce, and to seek out and to engage with all things beautiful in form and meaning.
Mary Phillips Coker's realistic works in bronze have been represented by the Cross Gate Gallery in Saratoga, New York and Lexington, Kentucky. Her sculpture and portrait photography are in private collections in the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, and China. Her bronzes are on public view at the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia, and in the permanent collection of the Museum of Hounds and Hunting in Leesburg, Virginia by donation of the estate of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and at Windsor Castle, England, in the permanent collection of Queen Elizabeth II.
All images on this website are copyright protected © Mary Phillips Coker