Mauree Childress is a loving wife, mother, daughter, grandmother and painter. Childress shares her story and that of so many others through her “Expanding Perspectives” gallery opened in Gallery 1308 at Union South Nov. 15.

Through her gallery, Childress shares with us the things most important to her, and pays homage to those who are hidden, but true, to supporting and running our communities. Her work focuses on the feminist movement, disability and paying respect to those who serve our communities but whose contributions are unseen.

Childress began her career as an art teacher where she taught at an elementary school and later a high school.

“I had a thousand students and I had a cart,” Childress said. “I went from school to school and room to room.”

Childress would go on to work for television advertising for 30 years before shifting to work for nonprofits — including the American Red Cross and the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay where she helped with fundraising and marketing. Childress currently works as a docent at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Childress was initially a textile artist until 2014 when she began painting, a form of art she had prior experience with since her time in university. She started to focus on the things that were most important to her.

Her pieces on the feminist movement embodied the women’s struggle for suffrage, and more recently, the Equal Rights Amendment.

One of her most notable pieces on feminism included a painting of Women Air Service Pilots during World War II, an organization of 1,100 civilian women pilots whose contribution to the war effort was ignored by Congress until 2009. Childress discovered the story through her father who served as an air force pilot during the war.

“I discovered the story from my dad who was an air force pilot stationed in England in World War II,” Childress said. “He used to fly a bomber over Germany when he was 19 years old. Many years after, I could see the distress that came with participating in the war.”

Childress dedicated a painting to the WASP. The painting has a young girl in a pilot’s helmet holding a toy plane dreaming of becoming a pilot. In the background four WASP can be seen. It shows the inspiration the female pilots of WASP serve for young children today.

“They broke ground for women, another glass ceiling,” Childress said.

Her pieces at Union South also spoke about her story and many lives similar to hers. Childress was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease called transverse myelitis in 2014 which made her temporarily paraplegic. This would greatly influence the subject and medium of her art. Soon, she was able to stand up and walk again. But, Childress noticed that people began to look at her differently.

“I learned to walk again, but I saw that people saw me differently and I wanted people to know how that felt,” Childress said.

Childress’ exhibit included a self-portrait of her in a wheelchair looking at a staircase, taken at an event that had occurred when she was invited to a party.

Another one of Childress’ paintings shows people with different disabilities with the words “we are here.”

“When you are below on a wheelchair, people don’t look at you necessarily,” Childress said. “I have people who met me later in life and told me I did not know we were supposed to look at them or talk to them. We are here.”

Childress explained that the younger generations and the nation as a whole is much better today than it was before and expresses her appreciation of how far we have come.

“The United States is much better than many countries, but we have a long way to go and we might never get there, but it is much better and I live a full life,” Childress said.

Her exhibit also holds a painting of dandelions included for their resilience.

“Dandelions are resilient and we can get very inspired by dandelions,” Childress said. “They find ways to grow and they are very useful.”

Other pieces in the exhibit include paintings of protesters fighting for equal rights, one regarding Roe v. Wade and a variety of groundscapes, patterns she has observed in the snow and manhole covers, amongst other things.

Her gallery paid homage to bus drivers, grocery workers and healthcare workers who stood on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown so people could receive treatment, acquire groceries and have accessible transportation. Childress cites the many difficulties that each of them face everyday in their jobs, which others overlook.

Through her art, Childress expresses the voice of some many that go unheard and by doing so, she expresses her own art.

Childress lives with her husband in Wauwatosa, outside of Milwaukee, and paints when she is not working at the Milwaukee Art Museum. She gives tours of the museum in her wheelchair and brings delight to young children as she did 30 years ago as an elementary art teacher. Childress is a proud grandmother whose granddaughter wishes to someday work for nonprofits in the foreign service as Childress did and continues to do so.