It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Mafalda Brasile Hicks, who passed away in La Jolla on Tuesday evening, March 2, 2010. She was 91 years old.

Mafalda led a long and fascinating life. Her absence will be deeply felt by her family, friends and the entire community. Mafalda’s artistic work and her involvement in cultural activities were a creative influence in La Jolla, and her artistic and personal legacy will continue to be felt for years.

Mafalda was born on March 15, 1918, in Newark, N.J., the daughter of a Scottish-American woman with Navajo ancestry and a father from Naples, Italy. Mafalda displayed artistic ability from an early age. She sang on live radio beginning in childhood. As a young woman, Mafalda studied art at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, specializing in fine arts. During World War II, Mafalda served in the Marine Corps in North Carolina, drawing maps and charts, and developing visual training aids for the military effort. She also sang with the big-band orchestras and entertained troops at military functions. In New York City she attended the Art Students League of New York, worked as an artist for the Advance Pattern Company, and performed as a jazz singer.

Mafalda, her husband, Dr. Richard B. Hicks, a psychoanalyst, and their four children moved to La Jolla in 1961. Mafalda taught clay modeling classes in the school enrichment programs and designed stage sets for productions at the La Jolla Junior Theatre. She also designed stage sets for productions in Boston, Mass., for the Belmont Children’s Theatre. Mafalda had a passion for books and learning. She was an active member of the Public Libraries and the La Jolla Athenaeum Music and Arts Library.

For more than 20 years, Mafalda was active on the Athenaeum Gala committee and became known as the Resident Sculptor for her creation of 26 large sculptures whose presence highlighted the Athenaeum’s annual fundraising event. Her sculptures included the goddess Athena, a 15-foot Alaskan Totem Pole, a life-sized camel, jaguar and Chinese dragon, an Indian figure of Ganesh, the many-armed Shiva, the archer Herakles, and the winged lion of St. Marks. Mafalda’s sculptural depiction of Ellen Browning Scripps, created from an iconic photograph of the seated Miss Scripps, graces the window of the Athenaeum Educational Wing to this day. In 2007, the Athenaeum held a one-woman retrospective exhibition of Mafalda’s sculptures, A Tribute to Mafalda Hicks.

Over the years, Mafalda participated in many masters drawing and painting classes, maintained a studio in downtown San Diego, and painted and sketched au plein air with a group of local artists. Her works depict local landmarks, La Jolla landscapes and many of San Diego’s historical buildings. Mafalda made frequent visits to Southwestern Indian reservations, where she studied the Navajo culture, her ancestral roots. These values remained fundamental to her way of life.

With the help of the Anthropology Department of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, Mafalda’s family is able to carry out her wish to serve as a model at her former art school, The Art Students League in New York City. She will initially serve as a subject of research by the Anthropology Department of Texas State University, San Marcos.

Mafalda is survived by her beloved husband of 60 years, Richard B. Hicks, her four children, Deirdre Alexander (John), Kathe Albrecht (Mark), Melodie Hicks Arterberry, and Richard Hicks; nephew Greg Place (Mary); grandchildren Anne Alexander (John Wolf), Kate Arterberry Paradis (Jack), Nicole Albrecht, Alex Albrecht, Alice Arterberry (Mike Mogavero), and Olivia Albrecht; and great grandchildren Max Mogavero, Olive Paradis and Isaac Wolf.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be given in Mafalda’s memory to the La Jolla Athenaeum, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla, CA 92037.