Muriel Fisher, San Diego artist and activist, was born April 11, 1919 in New York and passed away at age 85 on February 26, 2005. Even in her eighties, she remained active in both artistic and political community events: just one week before she died, she had participated in an art show. Muriel was a founder of Many Hands Craft Gallery, San Diego's oldest artist cooperative, and a member there for nearly thirty years. In homage, Many Hands honored her work in April 2005 with a month-long tribute and celebration.

Muriel's artistic medium was collecting "found junk," then recycling it and creating beautifully crafted art pieces out of fabric, beads, yarn, feathers, buttons, and objects from nature. Muriel also included poems with her artwork.

Her crowning achievement was a series of twelve dolls that she made with the help of a grant from the Thanks Be to Grandmother Winifred Foundation, a private foundation that encourages the creativity of women 54 and over to implement projects that empower and enrich aspects of adult women's well-being. Muriel portrayed twelve "Exceptional Women" in the arts: Georgia O'Keeffe, Anais Nin, Toni Morrison, May Sarton, Martha Graham, Frida Kahlo, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Beatrice Wood, Louise Nevelson, Barbara MacDonald, and a self-portrait. There was even a video made of her progress on the dolls, which ran on PBS.

Part of her reason for developing the "Exceptional Women" show was to inspire older women to never give up their dreams. As she said: "This is my way of paying homage to exceptional women in the arts. . . I've found doll making extremely fascinating and a source of never-ending satisfaction because it utilizes or weaves together all of my past experiences in the arts of sculpting, painting, stitchery, weaving, and theatre." The dolls are permanently housed at the Women's History Museum in San Diego.

Muriel was also very active in founding and volunteering for local lesbian organizations, including the San Diego Lesbian Organization, San Diego Jewish Lesbian Chavarah, Slightly Older Lesbians, and Shirttails Collective Coffee Houses, a monthly open-mic night. She also performed and created stage sets for the Beautiful Lesbian Thespians theatre group, even playing the King in an all-women production of "Cinderella" when she was in her sixties. Because of her extensive community involvement, Muriel was interviewed for the Lesbian History Project of the Lesbian and Gay Historical Society of San Diego/Lambda Archives. She also served as Grand Marshal in the San Diego Pride Parade.

Above all, Muriel is remembered for her vitality and creativity. When people would ask Muriel if she made a living with her artwork, she would respond "I don't make a living, I make a life."