Emmy Lou Packard also known as Betty Lou Packard (1914–1998) was a Californian post-war artist known for painting, printmaking and murals.

Early life

Emmy Lou Packard was born on April 15, 1914, near El Centro, California, to parents Emma and Walter Packard. Her father founded an agricultural cooperative community in the

Imperial Valley , photo = Salton Sea from Space.jpg , photo_caption = The Imperial Valley below the Salton Sea. The US-Mexican border runs diagonally across the lower left of the image. , map_image = Newriverwatershed-1-.jpg , map_caption = Map of Imperial ...

and was an internationally known agronomist. In 1927, the Packard family traveled to Mexico for Walter's consulting job with the Mexican government working on agrarian and land settlement reform issues. Emmy then 13 years, was already painting and drawing. Her mother introduced her to artists

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

and

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country's ...

, marking the beginning of a long friendship and mentorship. In 1934, she eloped to Nevada with the architect Burton Cairns, a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. They had a baby together, Donald Cairns. In 1936 Packard graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

with her bachelor's degree and later studied sculpture, mural and fresco painting at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Career

In 1939, her husband, Burton Cairns, died in a car accident. After his death, she traveled to Mexico to live with Rivera and Kahlo, working as their studio assistant. During the time she stayed with Rivera and Kahlo, she took a number of photographs of the couple. When Diego Rivera came to San Francisco in 1940 for the

Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) (1939 and 1940), held at San Francisco's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair celebrating, among other things, the city's two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 193 ...

(GGIE), he asked Emmy to be the chief assistant for painting the '' Pan American Unity'' mural. Between 1944 and 1945, she briefly worked as an illustrator of a labor newspaper for the San Francisco Bay Area shipyards. Packard designed and executed the mural on the exterior of the dining commons at the University of California, Berkeley in the Lower Sproul student union center. She also designed the terrace parapet which is embellished with an 85-foot long, 5-foot high,

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

mural depicting California landscape features, including coastal bluffs, cultivated fields, mountains, and rivers located in the central façade of Chávez Student Center at the University of California, Berkeley in the Lower Sproul. On May 29, 1959, she married artist Byron T. Randall; they divorced in 1972. Packard was an active community member in the Mission District of San Francisco and San Francisco's community mural movement. In 1974 she served as a mural technical adviser for the Bank of America building mural located at

Mission Street Mission Street is a north-south arterial thoroughfare in Daly City and San Francisco, California that runs from Daly City's southern border to San Francisco's northeast waterfront. The street and San Francisco's Mission District through which it ...

and 23rd Street; the local artists that painted this mural are Jesús “Chuy” Campusano,

Luis Cortázar Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

and Michael Rios. In 1960 and 1975, Packard and

Dorothy Wagner Puccinelli Dorothy Wagner Puccinelli, also known as Dorothy Puccinelli Cravath (December 19, 1901 – May 24, 1974), was a New Deal-era artist and muralist. She was based in San Francisco, California. Biography Born as Dorothy Wagner on December 19, 190 ...

restored murals, including Coit Tower. Packard died February 22, 1998, in San Francisco, California of

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

and related illnesses. In 2022, the

Richmond Art Center Richmond Art Center is a nonprofit arts organization based in Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in Englan ...

held an exhibition of Packard's linocuts: "Emmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscience."

References

External links

Emmy Lou Packard papers, from the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institution)

Emmy Lou Packard obituary from SFGate Newspaper

Frida Kahlo, in New York, N.Y. letter to Emmy Lou Packard, in San Francisco, Calif., from October 24, 1940

Emmy Lou Packard collection at the Oakland Museum of Art

{{DEFAULTSORT:Packard, Emily Artists from California 1914 births 1998 deaths Social realist artists People from El Centro, California San Francisco Art Institute alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni People of the New Deal arts projects 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American people