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Force of Nature

Photography Leigh WebberPhotos 12Issue May 2017
“I love to be outdoors,” says artist Mary Edna Fraser, pictured here on the dock of the James Island tidal creek property where she lives and works.Her plein air oils and batiks, such as Gulf Oil Spill (batik on silk, 55 x 35 inches, 2014) evoke both the majesty and vulnerability of the natural world.Looking Up: Fraser (photographed in her studio) brings an aerial perspective to her works, giving viewers a broader understanding of how human actions impact the landscape. “I go where I feel I’m most needed,” she says, in choosing her subject matter.Blue Ridge, oil on panel, 4 x 12 inches, 2016; image courtesy of Mary Edna FraserVital Vistas: As a girl, Fraser and her family explored rugged far reaches in an Airstream. The artist still enjoys hiking and camping, whether in the mountains or in national parks. At Canyonlands with her husband, John Sperry), photograph courtesy of Mary Edna FraserUndaunted: “If I don’t get into a place I want to go, I go knock on another door,” says the fearless Fraser, whose master pilot father took her flying in his 1946 Ercoupe; photograph courtesy of Mary Edna FraserArtistic Eye: Fraser’s 2007 batik on silk (50.75 x 53.75 inches) of Hurricane Katrina’s destructive swirl evokes its eerie beauty as well; image courtesy of Mary Edna FraserGlobal Perception (batik on silk, 21 x 9 feet, 1999), image courtesy of Mary Edna FraserNature Acts: Fraser’s batik, Charleston Airbourne Flooded (batik on silk, 97 x 35 inches, 2010) depicts NOAA’s projections of the Lowcountry’s 4.6-foot sea level rise by the year 2100. It will become a 98-foot centerpiece for “Awakening V” as it hangs on the Joseph Floyd Manor with the added words, “We argue. Nature acts.”—a play off Voltaire; image courtesy of Mary Edna FraserForce of NatureKiawah’s Captain Sam’s Spit; image courtesy of Mary Edna FraserDelete Apathy: On her blog, Delete Apathy, and in her artwork, Fraser uses her “megaphone” to speak out on issues that concern her, including the threat of development on Kiawah’s Captain Sam’s Spit, pictured in her 2016 batik on silk Captain Sam’s Spit (57.25 x 34.5 inches); image courtesy of Mary Edna Fraser

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