Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other Guest Artists posts' on this blogspot:
My Voice using Disperse Dyes on Cloth (Jennifer Libby Fay)
An Artistic Dialogue With My Immediate Environment (Lesley Turner)
The Art of Fascinators (Flora Fascinata)
Reality, Influence and Invention (Shirley McKernan)
The Mythical Beasts (Eric and Robyn Werkhoven)
Studio La Primitive Fashion Fantastic (Eric and Robyn Werkhoven)
The Art of Mary Edna Fraser: Poetic Landscapes
Introduction
I first met American artist, Mary Edna Fraser, in 2009. Both of us were invited to tutor workshops at Janet De Boer’s, The Australian Forum for Textile Arts (TAFTA), 2009 International Geelong Fibre Forum. The 2009 Geelong Forum which was held from 27th September through to 3rd of October, celebrated TAFTA’s 10th Anniversary of that event. Mary Edna and I were also invited to exhibit our ArtCloth/textile artworks as Feature Artists at the Sinclaire Gallery, at Geelong Grammar School, Victoria, where the Geelong Forum was held.
Mary Edna Fraser.
A passionate and insightful artist Mary Edna has strived to raise awareness about the fragile beauty and threat to our natural world due to anthropogenic climate change via her exquisite, large scale, signature aerial batiks on silk.
A world traveller who has traversed extensively documenting the extraordinary landscapes on our planet and elsewhere, Mary Edna is one of the early advocates of environmental art. Her ability to merge the fields of art, photography, science, and academic collaboration into a harmonious whole is evidenced through her years of visual and conceptual consistency through her iconic, multi-layered artworks and installations. Taking aerial photographs of our planet’s landscapes during her 50 year career, her works highlight the rapidly growing effects of climate change and the need to generate a more responsible and sustainable society so as to preserve our natural heritage for generations to come.
With her generous and adventurous spirit, Mary Edna shares her artistic processes, poetic vision and life’s work to inform and celebrate the connection that we all have with our solar system, in which our home, planet Earth with its lands, oceans, skies and myriad of life forms is contained.
Below is a vignette of her work. Visit Mary Edna’s website, facebook and Instagram for more of her artwork and insights.
I know you will love her artworks, installations and artistic journey as much as I do.
Marie-Therese
The Art of Mary Edna Fraser: Poetic Landscapes
For five decades, batik has been my medium, ranging from 14-inch damask kimono silks to soaring sculpture commissions for atriums. Most of my work is from the aerial vantage point of flying in my Grandfather’s 1946 vintage plane with my Father and Brother as pilots. I have flown and photographed most of the East Coast of America. Hiring instructors allows me to explore more parts of the world. The Great Wall of China and Mount Fuji have been captured through my Nikon camera on jet excursions. Charts, maps, or hiking for panoramic bird’s eye view also spur new designs. A dramatic scale and vibrant colorways impart an emotional response to beloved landscapes.
Mary Edna’s grandfather’s 1946 vintage plane flying above the landscape showing views of aerial vantage points that inspire her signature batik artworks.
A close up of Mary Edna taking aerial photographs from her grandfather’s 1946 vintage plane.
Although my medium is labor-intensive, I enjoy every part of the art - from the leap in my heart when I see an amazing shot through the camera lens, to the final batik which makes my mind’s eye a reality. The tedious process encourages a meditative approach. Silk is light reflective, perfect for atmospheric images conveyed in the studio. Over one hundred one-woman exhibitions have shown my work, primarily in museums. Presently I teach batik with my daughter Reba Fraser, also a dyer.
My intent is to convey the essence of place. My generation is the first to have procion dye chemistry available to them. We are also the first to have fast film and satellite imagery. ‘The Batik Art of Mary Edna Fraser’ South Carolina University Press was written by my assistant of 15 years Cecelia Dailey. It is a scholarly publication offering not only techniques of the ancient medium but also what inspires my artistic career.
I am an environmental activist focused on conveying messages of conservation and stewardship. Partnering with leading experts in the fields of planetary science, coastal geology, and oceanography offers breathtaking perspectives of space, earth, and deep sea. Exhibits and books have given me fantastic experiences with themes as diverse as Global Climate Change, Mapping the Planets, and Envisioning Ocean Depths.
Aerial photographs tell a story of time. Not geologic time but vast changes that happen in one lifetime. Our ecological awareness should make us all activists. My goal is to use art as a vehicle to make the fragility of our earth come to mind. The batiks convey perspectives that the human eye, maps, and ordinary cameras cannot reveal. I hope the art will act as a catalyst for the preservation of barrier islands for future generations. The works can further inform us of human produced climate-change and degradation: rising tides, intense hurricanes, watershed pollution, and wildfires.
Silk Painters International honored me as Master Dyer and Keynote speaker in 2021. This technique of resist dyeing has offered me a life of adventure. In 1997 at the World Batik Conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the Dutch Consulate asked me to lecture on my methods with over 40 dyers. TAFTA’s Geelong 2009 and 2011 Orange TAFTA gatherings provided teaching experiences. Sydney Workshops and the Powerhouse Museum premiered Australian Inspirations a film showing aerial excursions and diving in the Great Barrier Reef.
Title: Australia’s Fraser Island.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 27 x 40 inches.
Title: Great Barrier Reef.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 49.75 x 51.75 inches.
Title: Spencer Gulf.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 26 x 37 inches.
I keep about 100 Fiber Reactive dyes in stock and make my own colors, usually 7 per dyeing plus 4 layers of wax and dye. Everything in my studio is moveable for large scale work. The upstairs is devoted to business and I can look down to see how to proceed. The first time I tried batik, I was amazed at the joy of the process. Every painting explores a new technique. Presently I have 3 wonderful people who manage my business and the provenance of 1,500 art works.
Beeswax, paraffin, electric frying pan, tjanting tools, wax brushes, various dye brushes, and silk are the essential materials. The first waxing is to reserve the original silk, sometimes with an added light wash of colors as an underpainting. Each waxing and dyeing is an abstract piece of art. Sometimes I outline with the tjanting while other designs require wax brushes. 4 layers of wax and dye achieve a nice depth with darkest dyes last. I iron between newsprint to remove the wax, dry clean, and wash in Synthrapol.
Charleston Charted is my 171”x 54” batik which took 4 months of studio time and was translated to a 40‘ x 13.5’ metallic canvas installation. I am a commission artist and Above Mobile Bay won an international award for collaboration with architects and designers. Global Perception was suspended from 22 points of a triangular ceiling grid between the 2nd and 4th floor of a Fortune 500 company. A mountain climber installed the 7’, 14’ and 21’ drapes of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Map. I did pay for the use of his design and it is thought to be the largest silk sculpture on the planet. Alas, the company changed hands and parts were damaged, but I still have large segments to display in museum exhibits.
Working on the initial stages of Charleston Charted in my studio.
Working on the final stages of Charleston Charted in my studio.
Title: Charleston Charted.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 171 x 54 inches.
Title: Above Mobile Bay.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Exhibition Mode: Installation.
Title: Global Perception.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Exhibition Mode: Installation.
Charleston Waterways is my first sculpture made of 7 drapes for a 20’ x 12’ x 20’ atrium. I used electrical conduit and chain for installation. Destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, it was recommissioned. I learned that space eats color so the dyes were intensified. Exploring Deep Sea Volcanoes off the Coast of Barbados is a film made with Celie Dailey to show what it was like to be on the research vessel, Atlantis, as an artist. I painted watercolors which later became designs for batiks on silk and an exhibition. Science has always been important to my work. It was amazing to see the scientists work around the clock with the artists. Exploring Deep Sea Volcanoes off the Coast of Barbados.
Title: Charleston Waterways.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Exhibition Mode: Installation.
Title: Deformation Zone.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 203.5 x 36 inches.
Mapping the Planets in Silk and Sound is a multimedia approach to heavenly bodies and galaxies. Luckily I was named NASA 'Artist of the Year' in 1995 which gave me an opportunity to work with leading outer space scientists. Musician Mark Mercury created the soundtrack. In 1994-1995 the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC featured Aerial Inspirations: Silk Batiks by Mary Edna Fraser, which began my work with Professor Emeritus Orrin Pilkey. We have since collaborated on two books: ‘A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands’ (Columbia University Press) and ‘Global Climate Change: A Primer’ (Duke University Press). I consider him my 'Boss' and we still work together on the traveling exhibition 'Our Expanding Oceans.'.
Title: Our Galaxy.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 171 x 51 inches.
Title: Edisto IV (SC).
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 64 x 40 inches.
Conclusion
I live in Charleston, SC, where the lush tropical landscape is surrounded by marsh, ocean, and islands. This visual poetry sinks into my memory. The intuitive creative expressions are emotional. As an elder, I paint with oils, 3’ x 8’ canvases on location outdoors in threatened landscapes. This practice presents new discoveries which can then be applied to the lovely experience of painting on silk. Learn more & view these works via my Artist website
Biography
The pioneering work of American artist Mary Edna Fraser has been collected and exhibited worldwide. Her large-scale silk batiks (an ancient resist process using wax and dye on cloth) feature aerial landscapes, deep ocean waterscapes, and outer space imagery. Her newest endeavor, oil paintings, use a panoramic perspective to give a sense of the bird’s eye view. The common thread in her career of four decades is environmental awareness.
Collaboration with geoscientist Orrin H. Pilkey has yielded numerous traveling exhibitions and two acclaimed texts, ‘Global Climate Change: A Primer’ (Duke University Press) and ‘A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands’ (Columbia University Press).
NASA recognized Fraser as their Artist of the Year in 1995 and she was featured demonstrating batik in DC at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. As artist in residence at Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park in 2015, her oil paintings became prominent in her repertoire. The Verner Award was presented in 2016, South Carolina’s highest honor for an artist.
For your convenience I have listed below other Guest Artists posts' on this blogspot:
My Voice using Disperse Dyes on Cloth (Jennifer Libby Fay)
An Artistic Dialogue With My Immediate Environment (Lesley Turner)
The Art of Fascinators (Flora Fascinata)
Reality, Influence and Invention (Shirley McKernan)
The Mythical Beasts (Eric and Robyn Werkhoven)
Studio La Primitive Fashion Fantastic (Eric and Robyn Werkhoven)
The Art of Mary Edna Fraser: Poetic Landscapes
Introduction
I first met American artist, Mary Edna Fraser, in 2009. Both of us were invited to tutor workshops at Janet De Boer’s, The Australian Forum for Textile Arts (TAFTA), 2009 International Geelong Fibre Forum. The 2009 Geelong Forum which was held from 27th September through to 3rd of October, celebrated TAFTA’s 10th Anniversary of that event. Mary Edna and I were also invited to exhibit our ArtCloth/textile artworks as Feature Artists at the Sinclaire Gallery, at Geelong Grammar School, Victoria, where the Geelong Forum was held.
A passionate and insightful artist Mary Edna has strived to raise awareness about the fragile beauty and threat to our natural world due to anthropogenic climate change via her exquisite, large scale, signature aerial batiks on silk.
A world traveller who has traversed extensively documenting the extraordinary landscapes on our planet and elsewhere, Mary Edna is one of the early advocates of environmental art. Her ability to merge the fields of art, photography, science, and academic collaboration into a harmonious whole is evidenced through her years of visual and conceptual consistency through her iconic, multi-layered artworks and installations. Taking aerial photographs of our planet’s landscapes during her 50 year career, her works highlight the rapidly growing effects of climate change and the need to generate a more responsible and sustainable society so as to preserve our natural heritage for generations to come.
With her generous and adventurous spirit, Mary Edna shares her artistic processes, poetic vision and life’s work to inform and celebrate the connection that we all have with our solar system, in which our home, planet Earth with its lands, oceans, skies and myriad of life forms is contained.
Below is a vignette of her work. Visit Mary Edna’s website, facebook and Instagram for more of her artwork and insights.
I know you will love her artworks, installations and artistic journey as much as I do.
Marie-Therese
The Art of Mary Edna Fraser: Poetic Landscapes
For five decades, batik has been my medium, ranging from 14-inch damask kimono silks to soaring sculpture commissions for atriums. Most of my work is from the aerial vantage point of flying in my Grandfather’s 1946 vintage plane with my Father and Brother as pilots. I have flown and photographed most of the East Coast of America. Hiring instructors allows me to explore more parts of the world. The Great Wall of China and Mount Fuji have been captured through my Nikon camera on jet excursions. Charts, maps, or hiking for panoramic bird’s eye view also spur new designs. A dramatic scale and vibrant colorways impart an emotional response to beloved landscapes.
Although my medium is labor-intensive, I enjoy every part of the art - from the leap in my heart when I see an amazing shot through the camera lens, to the final batik which makes my mind’s eye a reality. The tedious process encourages a meditative approach. Silk is light reflective, perfect for atmospheric images conveyed in the studio. Over one hundred one-woman exhibitions have shown my work, primarily in museums. Presently I teach batik with my daughter Reba Fraser, also a dyer.
My intent is to convey the essence of place. My generation is the first to have procion dye chemistry available to them. We are also the first to have fast film and satellite imagery. ‘The Batik Art of Mary Edna Fraser’ South Carolina University Press was written by my assistant of 15 years Cecelia Dailey. It is a scholarly publication offering not only techniques of the ancient medium but also what inspires my artistic career.
I am an environmental activist focused on conveying messages of conservation and stewardship. Partnering with leading experts in the fields of planetary science, coastal geology, and oceanography offers breathtaking perspectives of space, earth, and deep sea. Exhibits and books have given me fantastic experiences with themes as diverse as Global Climate Change, Mapping the Planets, and Envisioning Ocean Depths.
Aerial photographs tell a story of time. Not geologic time but vast changes that happen in one lifetime. Our ecological awareness should make us all activists. My goal is to use art as a vehicle to make the fragility of our earth come to mind. The batiks convey perspectives that the human eye, maps, and ordinary cameras cannot reveal. I hope the art will act as a catalyst for the preservation of barrier islands for future generations. The works can further inform us of human produced climate-change and degradation: rising tides, intense hurricanes, watershed pollution, and wildfires.
Silk Painters International honored me as Master Dyer and Keynote speaker in 2021. This technique of resist dyeing has offered me a life of adventure. In 1997 at the World Batik Conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the Dutch Consulate asked me to lecture on my methods with over 40 dyers. TAFTA’s Geelong 2009 and 2011 Orange TAFTA gatherings provided teaching experiences. Sydney Workshops and the Powerhouse Museum premiered Australian Inspirations a film showing aerial excursions and diving in the Great Barrier Reef.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 27 x 40 inches.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 49.75 x 51.75 inches.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 26 x 37 inches.
I keep about 100 Fiber Reactive dyes in stock and make my own colors, usually 7 per dyeing plus 4 layers of wax and dye. Everything in my studio is moveable for large scale work. The upstairs is devoted to business and I can look down to see how to proceed. The first time I tried batik, I was amazed at the joy of the process. Every painting explores a new technique. Presently I have 3 wonderful people who manage my business and the provenance of 1,500 art works.
Beeswax, paraffin, electric frying pan, tjanting tools, wax brushes, various dye brushes, and silk are the essential materials. The first waxing is to reserve the original silk, sometimes with an added light wash of colors as an underpainting. Each waxing and dyeing is an abstract piece of art. Sometimes I outline with the tjanting while other designs require wax brushes. 4 layers of wax and dye achieve a nice depth with darkest dyes last. I iron between newsprint to remove the wax, dry clean, and wash in Synthrapol.
Charleston Charted is my 171”x 54” batik which took 4 months of studio time and was translated to a 40‘ x 13.5’ metallic canvas installation. I am a commission artist and Above Mobile Bay won an international award for collaboration with architects and designers. Global Perception was suspended from 22 points of a triangular ceiling grid between the 2nd and 4th floor of a Fortune 500 company. A mountain climber installed the 7’, 14’ and 21’ drapes of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Map. I did pay for the use of his design and it is thought to be the largest silk sculpture on the planet. Alas, the company changed hands and parts were damaged, but I still have large segments to display in museum exhibits.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 171 x 54 inches.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Exhibition Mode: Installation.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Exhibition Mode: Installation.
Charleston Waterways is my first sculpture made of 7 drapes for a 20’ x 12’ x 20’ atrium. I used electrical conduit and chain for installation. Destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, it was recommissioned. I learned that space eats color so the dyes were intensified. Exploring Deep Sea Volcanoes off the Coast of Barbados is a film made with Celie Dailey to show what it was like to be on the research vessel, Atlantis, as an artist. I painted watercolors which later became designs for batiks on silk and an exhibition. Science has always been important to my work. It was amazing to see the scientists work around the clock with the artists. Exploring Deep Sea Volcanoes off the Coast of Barbados.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Exhibition Mode: Installation.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 203.5 x 36 inches.
Mapping the Planets in Silk and Sound is a multimedia approach to heavenly bodies and galaxies. Luckily I was named NASA 'Artist of the Year' in 1995 which gave me an opportunity to work with leading outer space scientists. Musician Mark Mercury created the soundtrack. In 1994-1995 the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC featured Aerial Inspirations: Silk Batiks by Mary Edna Fraser, which began my work with Professor Emeritus Orrin Pilkey. We have since collaborated on two books: ‘A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands’ (Columbia University Press) and ‘Global Climate Change: A Primer’ (Duke University Press). I consider him my 'Boss' and we still work together on the traveling exhibition 'Our Expanding Oceans.'.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 171 x 51 inches.
Technique and Media: Batik on silk.
Size: 64 x 40 inches.
Conclusion
I live in Charleston, SC, where the lush tropical landscape is surrounded by marsh, ocean, and islands. This visual poetry sinks into my memory. The intuitive creative expressions are emotional. As an elder, I paint with oils, 3’ x 8’ canvases on location outdoors in threatened landscapes. This practice presents new discoveries which can then be applied to the lovely experience of painting on silk. Learn more & view these works via my Artist website
Biography
The pioneering work of American artist Mary Edna Fraser has been collected and exhibited worldwide. Her large-scale silk batiks (an ancient resist process using wax and dye on cloth) feature aerial landscapes, deep ocean waterscapes, and outer space imagery. Her newest endeavor, oil paintings, use a panoramic perspective to give a sense of the bird’s eye view. The common thread in her career of four decades is environmental awareness.
Collaboration with geoscientist Orrin H. Pilkey has yielded numerous traveling exhibitions and two acclaimed texts, ‘Global Climate Change: A Primer’ (Duke University Press) and ‘A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands’ (Columbia University Press).
NASA recognized Fraser as their Artist of the Year in 1995 and she was featured demonstrating batik in DC at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. As artist in residence at Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park in 2015, her oil paintings became prominent in her repertoire. The Verner Award was presented in 2016, South Carolina’s highest honor for an artist.
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