Maureen Scott showed off her artistic bent early.
She and her sister, Diane, were home alone once when their parents were out of town.
They used the time to paint the toilet seat with flowers and grass.
Scott, a sculptor, died at Rose Medical Center on March 23 after a short illness. She had scleroderma, which advanced swiftly, said her husband, Minor Scott III. She was 57.
Scott’s work won many awards, and some of her sculptures were depicted on the cover of Manhattan Arts International Magazine.
Her work was also on display in the National Sculpture Society exhibit in New York City.
She did mostly human figures and, whether in bronze or terra cotta, they were often painted in surprising ways or posed in odd fashion. Many were women, and stripes were a favorite.
And she was known for the titles she put on her works.
One of her figures, displayed in downtown Evergreen, where she lived, is a woman on one foot, one arm extended upward and the other down. It is titled “Oh, God.”
She had an entry in Denver’s “Cow Parade” last year and covered the cow in red and white stripes and blue stars. But they weren’t in the shape of the American flag. She named the critter “Americow.”
She titled one sculpture “Moon Over Miami.” It was a reclining figure of a woman “with the greatest tush you ever saw,” said her husband.
Another sculpture showed a woman sitting, legs askew, her chin resting on her hand. It’s called “Nice Sculpture, Eh?”
Another shows a woman in deep thought called “What Was I Thinking?”
“She was an inspiration to all of us,” said Tom Ware, who owns a studio where Scott often worked. “She was a very funny person, and her work made you laugh. She made you feel good.”
“No one made things like she did,” said Sharon Feeney, a college roommate. “She danced to her own tune. But she wasn’t like a lot of artists in dress. She dressed in black and purple – nothing flamboyant.”
Maureen Kiver was born in Chicago on Aug. 9, 1949, and graduated from Highland Park High School there.
She moved to Denver to study sculpture at the University of Denver. She did post-graduate work in Pietrasanta, Italy, and at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Her art is displayed in the Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland and in galleries in Laguna Beach, Calif., and Marbella, Spain.
She married Minor Scott in 1977. They met at Denver’s Bull and Bush Restaurant when he was a bartender and she was a waitress.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her son, M. Samuel Scott, and her daughter, Rebecca Scott, both of Denver; her sister, Diane K. Shah of New York City; and her mother, Ruth Kiver of Chicago.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
