![\"Jerry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MAREISLAND2.jpg\")
Jerry Downs helps to hang photographs that are part of the Wendy the Welder & The Mare Island Shipyard Workers show opening at Mare Island Art Studios on Sunday. (Chris Riley\/Times-Herald)<\/p>\nFor all the glory from its status as the nation\u2019s first naval station on the West Coast, the stories of the thousands of women who helped shape Mare Island\u2019s are often overlooked.<\/p>\n
Mare Island Art Studios member JeanCherie\u2019s latest exhibition will celebrate the strength, resilience, and lasting impact of the women who contributed to Mare Island\u2019s history and the nation\u2019s wartime efforts.<\/p>\n
Before joining Mare Island Art Studios, JeanCherie spent over 30 years sculpting for movies, television, animatronics, and large-scale installations. She specializes in enlarging and duplicating fine art sculpture.<\/p>\n
Her work can also be found across the ferry terminal. In 2015, she completed a 6-foot-tall cement sculpture titled \u201cMother and Child.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upcoming exhibit\u2019s centerpiece, \u201cWendy the Welder,\u201d is a sculpture inspired by more than 11,000 women who built ships on Mare Island during World War II.<\/p>\n
\u201cWendy the Welder\u201d is inspired by a photograph of women working on the Nereus, a submarine tender, at the Mare Island Shipyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cMen would be the ones to christen a ship when it went out,\u201d said JeanCherie. \u201cBut since the Nereus was built mostly by women, it was christened by women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jerry Downs helps to hang photographs that are part of the Wendy the Welder & The Mare Island Shipyard Workers show opening at Mare Island Art Studios on Sunday. (Chris Riley\/Times-Herald)<\/p>\n
The exhibit is a tribute to the workers of her mother\u2019s generation and the spirit of the Mare Island community.<\/p>\n
Though \u201cWendy the Welder\u201d is currently a small clay maquette, JeanCherie hopes to turn it into a 10-foot-tall bronze sculpture one day.<\/p>\n
JeanCherie said the exhibit will serve as a launching point for community support and effort to turn it into a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor one thing, she just filled a huge need when the men went to war,\u201d said JeanCherie. \u201cShe proved what women could do. That we were that important. I really feel that that was a huge step for women.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tim Rose gallery will feature works from seven additional artists. The exhibit will include JeanCherie\u2019s other works, including \u201cThe White Mare and the Tule Elk\u201d and \u201cMare of the Isle\u201d and more.<\/p>\n
The exhibit also features a wall of testimonials from community members whose family members contributed to Mare Island\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
One of those testimonials features Brendan Riley, who, as a teenager, worked as a deckhand on the ferryboats that hauled workers to and from Mare Island Naval Shipyard.<\/p>\n
Another testimonial comes from Sharon McGriff Payne, who recounts the story of her mother, Bernice W. McGriff, a forklift driver at Mare Island in the 1940s. Payne said her mother was hired through the labor office on Tennessee Street, where Mare Island employees were recruited.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven Bernice\u2019s husband didn\u2019t think that women should be driving a forklift. Except he did think that she was the best forklift driver ever,\u201d said JeanCherie. \u201cThese stories just say a lot about the steps we are taking now, the steps we should\u2019ve taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visitors will have the opportunity to sit down and write their family\u2019s connection to Mare Island on index cards.<\/p>\n
The exhibit will also feature works from freelance photographer Gary Cullen and photo-illustrative artist Mike Narcisco in the small gallery.<\/p>\n
For those who have not visited an exhibition at Mare Island Art Studios, JeanCherie encourages visitors to celebrate local history and the efforts women have made and contributed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often have people visit our exhibits for the first time who didn\u2019t know the art studios were here,\u201d JeanCherie said. \u201cOthers look around and say, \u2018I remember this building. I used to work here,\u2019 before it became what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added, \u201cThere\u2019s a need to know the history that people are really living.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opening reception for \u201cWendy the Welder & The Mare Island Shipyard Workers\u201d will take place on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
Mare Island Art Studios will be open every Sunday in June from noon to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For all the glory from its status as the nation\u2019s first naval station on the West Coast, the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":847173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,276,1033,171,2879,472,728,50,2295,1585,27951,15184,1072,67,132,68,16914],"class_list":["post-847172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-california","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-history","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-solano-county","tag-things-to-do","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vallejo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116699985890760813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}