Mary Jane Wodening (née Collom; September 7, 1936 – November 17, 2023) was an American artist and writer.

[3]During their marriage, she was featured in one of Brakhage's best-known works, the experimental short film Window Water Baby Moving.

[4] Critic Archer Winsten described the film as being "so forthright, so full of primitive wonder and love, so far beyond civilization in its acceptance that it becomes an experience like few in the history of movies.

[7] Wodening is also featured in several other works, many of which she played a role in directing, photographing, and editing, such as Cats Cradle (1959), Wedlock House: An Intercourse (1959), and Dog Star Man (1961-64).

In order to focus on Wodening's life, Hammer chose not to include any footage, or mention, of Brakhage (whose work she admired) in the documentary.

She subsequently lived in her car for two years and drove all over America, creating the book Driveabout.

[10] In 2004, she moved to Denver, Colorado and continued writing books, such as Wolf Dictionary, The Lady Orangutan and Other Stories, Animals I've Neglected to Mention, and Brakhage’s Childhood.

[11][12] In the mid- to late 1960s, Wodening made a set of three scrapbooks that include many of the poets and artists of the time who frequented Brakhage's and her house when they were married.

They chronicle Wodening and her family's life during this time period and include newspaper clippings, photos, drawings by both her children and the artists that visited their house, letters from the artists they corresponded with (including Robert Creeley, Edward Dorn, Robert Kelly, and Joseph Cornell), thoughts from daily life, and frames from Brakhage's Mothlight.