In My Father's House (52" x 44", acrylic on canvas) - This was Mary's last complete painting. Like the Mustard Seed, the inspiration was a verse from the Bible (John 14:2-4):

     In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.
    And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
    And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

In this painting Mary may have come the closest to her vision of heaven.  Shedding every vestige of demons and dead creatures, this painting offers a bright, colorful image of a world with much activity - animals and people walking around, exploring - and yet also conveys a sense of infinite peace and tranquility.  By putting fish in the air, Mary let her love for creatures combine with her affinity for ambiguity - is it underwater, or are the fish flying?  Making the "house" out of a wild agglomeration of architectural pieces from around the world may have been her way of expressing her interpretation of this Bible verse - that there are many paths to heaven, and there is a place there for every being on earth.

"I wanted every place to be available to every other place, in other words, nothing cut off, just so that you could wander in and out.  So the turtle is perfectly welcome to walk into that pool with the seals.  And so forth.

"First I had a very hard time with the architecture.  I had a tendency to get drunk and go zoop, zoop zoop.  So I had to resort to squares, and the squares didn't really come out very well.  I got a book on architecture and I looked through lots of paintings and things... I wanted to have living quarters as well as temples.  And I wanted to have really a lot going on - a lot of people, a lot of life. And then I wanted it all to be peaceful, like when you drive through a New England village this time of year, and everything looks new, with the chrysanthemums, and the grass cut, and the wood cut, and it looks so, so taken care of. "