Name Ada Sharpless | ||
Ada Mae Sharpless also spelled Ada May Sharpless (August 16, 1899 – November 20, 1988) was an American artist and sculptor.
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Early life and education
She was born in Hilo, Hawaii, the daughter of missionaries Viola and Benjamin Harry Sharpless, and grew up in Santa Ana, California. She graduated from USC in 1922, studied art at the Otis Art Institute, and continued her studies in Paris for four years during the 1920s, with Antoine Bourdelle.
Career
During the 1930s she created sculptures for several area parks and associations. She was a member of the California Art Club and the Laguna Beach Art Association.
She is known for her majestic, cast stone statue of a woman, executed in the Art Deco style, located on the grounds of Echo Park Lake in Echo Park, a neighorhood in the city of Los Angeles. The official name of the statue is "Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles" (Our Queen of the Angels) but its popular name is the "Lady of the Lake". The statue was commissioned in 1934 by the federal Works Project Administration and gifted to the city in 1935.
Sharpless also made a full-length stone statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo for the patio of the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. During World War II she worked for Douglas Aircraft in Southern California.