Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Biographical / Historical
Content Description
Arrangement
Processing Information
Related Materials
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Miriam C. and Raymond Rice Papers
source:
Rice, Felicia
Creator:
Rice, Miriam C.
Creator:
Rice, Ray, 1916-2001
Identifier/Call Number: MS.277
Physical Description:
32.5 Linear Feet
28 boxes
Physical Description:
5.31 GB
(453 digital files)
Date (inclusive): circa 1930-2010
Date (bulk): bulk 1960-2000
Abstract: This collection documents the careers
and artistic works of Miriam C. Rice and Raymond (Ray) Rice, two artists based in Mendocino,
California throughout the twentieth century. It contains artwork samples, including batik
prints, sketches, paintings, and dye samples, and photographs of mosaics, sculptures, and
paintings. Miriam's extensive research on mushroom dyeing is included along with materials
documenting her involvement in the International Mushroom Dye Institute (IMDI). Samples of
Miriam's and Ray's writing is represented in this collection in the form of poetry;
manuscripts of Miriam's books on mushroom dyeing and papermaking; and Ray's artists' books,
journal and magazine articles, and personal journal entries. Both Ray and Miriam
corresponded extensively with family, friends, and colleagues, which is represented in the
Correspondence series.
Language of Material:
English.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection open for research. Audiovisual media is unavailable until reformatted. Digital
files are available in the UCSC Special Collections and Archives reading room. Some files
may require reformatting before they can be accessed. Technical limitations may hinder the
Library's ability to provide access to some digital files. Access to digital files on
original carriers is prohibited; users must request to view access copies. Contact Special
Collections and Archives in advance to request access to audiovisual media and digital
files.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by Felicia Rice. Reproduction or
distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires
permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to determine
whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more information see
UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Preferred Citation
Miriam C. and Raymond Rice Papers. MS 277. Special Collections and Archives, University
Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gifts of Felicia Rice, 2019.
Biographical / Historical
Miriam C. Rice (1918-2010) and Raymond C. Rice (1916-2001) were two Mendocino, California
based artists known for their artwork across various kinds of media, their teachings and
impact in their profession, and strong involvement within their communities. Miriam and Ray
met in the early 1940s as students at the New York Arts Students League, and married in 1942
after Ray finished military service in World War II. After the war, Ray and Miriam spent
time working and teaching in Arizona and Mexico, and eventually settled in the San Francisco
Bay Area in the mid-1950s. During these years, they had three children: Mira Ellen (born
1945 in New York), Rachel Susan (born 1948 in New York), and Felicia May (born 1954 in San
Francisco). Miriam and Ray were regular teachers and working artists at the Mendocino Art
Center, which they helped develop, along with other artists recruited by the Center’s
founders Bill and Jennie Zacha. Miriam and Ray settled in Mendocino in 1970, where they
continued developing their respective art, research, and writing practices throughout their
lives.
Miriam C. Rice was born in 1918 in Clinton, Massachusetts. Miriam began her artistic career
as a sculptor, receiving early recognition for her work in the form of gallery exhibitions,
article features, and awards. She studied and worked in a variety of spaces, including the
Art Students League in New York City, the upstate New York artists' community Yaddo (where
she was an artist-in-residence), and in New Orleans where she assisted sculptor Enrique
Alférez. In the 1960s, Miriam began working with natural dyes in wood block printing and
batik. Her work across these two mediums featured explorations of positive and negative
space, and mainly included images of women and children. Miriam's artistic repertoire also
included textile arts, mushroom pigment extraction and dyeing, and organic paper making.
Miriam's mushroom dyeing journey began in the late 1960s, when she began learning about
mushroom identification. Miriam discovered a large variety of colors, and through rigorous
experimentation and note-taking, created a replicable dyeing and pigment extraction process.
One of her many pigment creations included Myco-Stix, crayons made from combining mushroom
pigment and beeswax. She became an authority on mushroom dyes, traveling internationally to
lecture and teach, publishing three books on her research (
Let's Try Mushrooms for
Color
(1974),
Mushrooms for Color (1980), and
Mushrooms for
Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix
(2007)), and co-founding the International
Mushroom Dye Institute (IMDI) in 1985. Miriam also produced two videos on her work and
research with mushrooms:
Mushrooms for Color: Dyeing with Fungi (1988) and
Mushrooms for Paper: Papermaking with Polypores (1993). Miriam was honored
for her 90th birthday in 2008 at the International Fungi and Fibre Symposium in 2008 in
Mendocino. Miriam passed away in 2010 in Mendocino, California.
Raymond Rice, also known professionally as Ray Rice, was born in Elkhart, Indiana in 1916,
and lived his life as an interdisciplinary and independent artist. He designed and built
mosaics, sculpted statues, painted murals, worked with watercolors, and contributed to
newspaper comics in The San Francisco Chronicle and various local and international
publications. Ray spent his early life as a student and attended the Chicago Art Institute,
the Art Students League of New York, and the New School for Social Research in New York.
After graduating, he served in the military as an Army Captain in World War II. In the 1950s
and 1960s, Ray's work was instrumental in the development of the "Art and Architecture"
artistic movement in the United States. Ray combined sculpture, mosaic, and paintings,
fulfilling major local and international commissions from The Ford Motor Company, Bank of
America, and The Fresno Airport. Ray released over forty films between 1965-1985, a medium
that combined his talent in the visual, written, and musical arts. His films mainly utilized
time-lapse and stop motion animation, where objects were physically manipulated in small
increments between photographed frames, giving the impression of independent motion when the
series of frames is played back. In the later part of his life, Ray collaborated with his
daughters on three artist's books:
De Amor Oscuro (1991),
The Wages of
Age
(1996), and
Cosmogonie Intime (2005). His work began evolving,
and he focused on sketch art, poetry, and wood strip paintings, among many other creative
activities. Ray passed away in 2001 in Mendocino, California.
Content Description
This collection contains the artistic work of Miriam C. and Raymond (Ray) Rice, as well as
personal and research files. The series of Miriam's files include dye samples from
mushrooms, organic paper samples, drawings, writings, book drafts and manuscripts, prints,
research, and materials from the International Mushroom Dye Institute (IMDI) and other
professional organizations. Miriam's early and extensive work in sculpture is represented in
the collection through photographs and slides. The series of Ray's files contain notes,
sketches, paper cutouts, scripts, film acetate drawings, and other process materials from
his experimental films; sketchbooks filled with drawings in pen and ink; examples of his
poetry and journals; photographs of his mosaics, sculptures, and paintings; as well as book
drafts, manuscripts, and artist copies. Both series include research, correspondence, and
articles about or related to their work. Also included in the collection are articles about
Miriam and Ray's exhibits, work, teachings, and professional activities. Correspondence
related to Miriam and Ray's specific projects are arranged within the file for that specific
project, and general correspondence from friends, family, and colleagues are in the
Correspondence series. Photographs are also found throughout the collection in the form of
slides, negatives, and prints. In addition to capturing their artistic and professional
work, many photographs document their travels, and activities with family and friends.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in four series:
- Series 1: Personal and family papers
- Series 2: Miriam C. Rice papers
- Series 3: Raymond Rice papers
- Series 4: Correspondence
Materials within each series are arranged chronologically by date, unless otherwise
specified.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Joseph Finkel, Sienna Ballou, and Alix Norton in the
Center for Archival Research and Training (CART), 2022. Most titles in this collection were
derived from the original folder titles as received from the donor. Digital files were
received on 9 CDs, 2 DVDs, and 1 3.5" floppy disk. Digital files were captured from physical
media in 2018 and 2022. Duplicate and out of scope files were not retained. Files were not
reformatted, and file names are original to the creator. Original disks were not retained in
the collection.
Related Materials
The following materials are available in UC Santa Cruz Special Collections & Archives:
- MS180 Ray Rice Films
-
Let's try mushrooms for color. Rice, Miriam C., author. Beebee,
Dorothy M., illustrator. Dassett, Marlene Nordstrom, photographer. (1974) Call number
TT854.3 .R52 1974
-
De amor oscuro = Of dark love. Alarcón, Francisco X., author,
translator. Aragon, Francisco, translator. Rice, Felicia, book designer, printer.
Fields, Scott, book designer, printer. Rice, Ray, illustrator. Call number Z239 .M68
1991b
-
The wages of age. Rice, Ray, author, illustrator. (1996) Call number
PS3568.I288 W34 1996
-
Cosmogonie intime. Peyré, Yves. Rice, Felicia, book designer. Rice,
Ray, illustrator. Jackson, Elizabeth R., translator. Call number Z239 .M68 2005
Digitized versions of Ray Rice's films may be found in the UCSC Library by searching
"Rice, Ray" in the Author/creator field in UCSC Library Search.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Women artists -- California
Mushrooms
Mosaics -- 20th century
Dyes and dyeing
American poetry -- 20th century
Artists -- California -- Mendocino County
Personal correspondence
Rice, Felicia
Rice, Miriam C.
Rice, Ray, 1916-2001