Mabel Fairfax Karl (American, 1901-1990). Before her marriage, Mabel Fairfax Smith listed herself in the San Diego directories under “artists” from 1919 to 1926, living on Pt. Loma. In 1926 she accompanied three other San Diego artists to the Santa Barbara School of the Arts where she studied bronze casting under Archibald Dawson from Glasgow. She studied with Leo Lentelli, Joseph Pennell, George Bridgmen and Frank V. Dumond at the Art Students’ League in New York.Marrying about 1927, Karl thereafter seems to have split her time between San Diego and Houston, exhibiting in both places from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. Although primarily a sculptor working in stone, bronze and wood, she also produced prints, and taught a sketching class at the San Diego Zoo in 1930. Her work won numerous awards including a purchase prize at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston in 1934. She exhibited one of her wood pieces at the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935.Karl had memberships in the American Federation of Arts and the San Diego Art Guild with whom she often exhibited. In 1931, her marble head of a girl won first prize at the guild’s annual exhibition. She won the design competition for a marksman trophy for the U. S. Marine Corps in 1933, and also produced several bronze relief panels for Woodrow Wilson Memorial High School in San Diego. - Karl, Mabel Fairfax Smith (Mrs. Fred W. Karl). (1901-1990).B: Glendale, Oregon. D: San Diego, California.Sculptor, craftsperson, graphic artist, printmaker, teacher.Sweeny. Studied: Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, San Francisco (1922) with Giovanni B. Portanova; Art Students League of New York (1923-1924); Leo Lentelli; Joseph Pennell; George Brandt Bridgman; Frank Vincent DuMond; Archibald Dawson; Charles Christadoro. Member: Art Students League of New York; San Diego Art Guild (charter member); San Diego Fine Arts Society; American Federation of Arts; Southern States Art League. Exhibitions: Children's Fair, Panama-California Exposition, San Diego Exposition, 1915, Wild Horses (prize), 1916, The Rodeo (prize); Girl's Studio Club, New York, 1923, (prize); San Diego Art Guild, 1923, Eurydice; Houston Local Artists Exhibition, 1927, Fawn, Parso, In the Village, New York, Animals, New York Zoo, 1928, Camels-Herman Park Zoo (drypoint), Love Birds (aquatint), Sunday Morning (drypoint); Virgin (colored etching), A Dog's Dream (wood carving), 1931, Black Leopard (pencil), Gazelles (pen/ink), Leopard Study (pencil), Young Lion (brush/ink), Diana (plaster), Growth (plaster), Leopards (plaster), Lion (plaster), The Old King (plaster), 1932, Mask, (sculpture) (honorable mention), Colors, 1933, 1934, (wood carvings), Orpheus, Eurydice (prize), Girl's Head (marble), 1935, Bride of Perseus (limestone) (honorable mention), Diogenes (wood), 1936, Eve, 1937, Self-Portrait (sculpture); San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, 1926, (sketches), 1927, 1928, Camels-Herman Park Zoo, Love Birds, Sunday Morning, Virgin (etchings), A Dog's Dream (wood carving), 1931, 1932, (prize), 1933, Sketch (crayon), Fragment, Carving (white pine) 1934, (prize), 1935, (wood carving) (prize), 1938, (prize); Texas Artists Exhibition, Fort Worth Museum of Art, 1928, Fawn, Parson (etchings), 1929, Black Calamity, Old Wood Derrick-Goose Creek Oil Field (linocuts), 1932, 1935, Girl's Head, 1937, Chiron; Southern States Art League, 1935, Patriarch (sculpture), 1936, Modern Venus, Symbol of Life (sculptures); Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939, Self-Portrait. Collections: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Orpheus, Eurydice, (wood carvings); San Diego Museum of Art (figure in cypress wood); American Legion, San Diego, (bronze tablet); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Black Calamity-Texas, (linocut), The Precious Possession-Texas, (linocut); Wilson Memorial High School, San Diego, Woodrow Wilson (bronze relief). Karl was a native of Glendale, Oregon. She sculpted a statue of a nurse in World War I Red Cross Nurse a.k.a. Somewhere in France. It was cast in plaster and sold nationally to raise funds for the Red Cross. She established a studio in Point Loma, California, by 1919. She was a charter member of the San Diego Art Guild. After her marriage to a physician about 1927, she moved to live near Houston. Karl was active in both Houston and San Diego. She divided time between both cities. Sources: Roper, Texas Artists and Artisans, V2, p 117-118; Falk; Fisk; Hendricks and Reese; Hughes; Mallett, Index; O'Brien; Powers; Southwest Review, Autumn, 1940.