All of my art is informed by Nature and Spirit. In my early works, I created ritual installations that evoked a sense of timelessness and magic. One of my most complex installations was created in response to the alarming numbers of extinct and endangered animal species on the planet.

The Forgotten

DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank, Boston MA

"The Forgotten" Installation

DeCordova Sculpture Gardena nd Park 

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"The Forgotten" Installation

DeCordova Sculpture Gardena nd Park

Autumn Ritual

Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY,

In another installation I created (during an artist's residency) at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY, I used a cornfield as my canvas. This installation was called, Autumn Ritual. My original idea was to build a labyrinth using the cornstalks in an 80' x 200' field on the Yaddo property. I intended to leave three life-sized corn dollies/goddesses in the center of the labyrinth. One morning I walked out to the cornfield to continue my work and found all the cornstalks had been cut down leaving only my three figures in the middle of the large field. I was forced to completely rethink my idea and decided to dig a forty-foot spiral ditch around the goddesses and fill it with 200 gallons of water. Since I was documenting the project with black and white photographs, I planned to photograph the goddesses and the spiral in the light of the full moon.

As I continued to work on the project, I realized that I was telling a story and that it would be necessary to sacrifice one of the goddesses. I dressed her in heart shapd leaves for the occasion. On the night of the full moon, several fellow artist residents and I came to the cornfield bearing costumes and torches. The torches cast a warm glow over the scene. We lit a ring of fire on the ground around the perimeter of the spiral. Then, we ignited one of the goddesses. She burned brightly for a brief instant  and was gone. I photographed her as she burned. At dawn the following morning, I came once again to the cornfield and photographed her in the morning mist.

This installation, Autumn Ritual, was included in two books, one was This Way Daybreak Comes (Women's Values and the Future) by Annie Cheatham and Mary Clare Powell and other was The Reflowering of the Goddess by Gloria Feman Orenstein. (Please see my résumé for further information.)

Ritual Series #8

Boston Visual Artist's Union, Boston MA

In my early installations, I was greatly influenced by ancient and so called " primitive" cultures that lived harmoniously with Nature. Those cultures inspired me to create mysterious, ritualistic installations incorporating fragile natural materials such as tree branches, vines, sand, bark, feathers, stones and dried pigments. I was concerned with creating a sense of place, an environment that evoked a feeling of timelessness, drama and mystery.

"Marsha Hewitt's large installation is abstract in the sense that a religious ceremony includes abstractions of aspects of real life.... The piece is about rough and smooth textures, about defining a space as something sacred and apart, but more than that, it is about ritual." - Christine Temin, Boston Globe, December 1987 regarding the exhibit, "Absolutely Abstract" exhibit at the Boston Visual Artist's Union, Boston, MA

"Ritual Series #8"

Boston Visual Artist's Union

"Ritual Series #8"

Boston Visual Artist's Union