Mary Edna Fraser likes to get high whenever she’s searching for inspiration for her art. As in, she likes to get in her grandfather’s antique airplane and take to the skies to get an aerial perspective on the land below. Once she’s reached her desired position, she’ll relinquish the controls and focus on photographing the landscape, taking hundreds of pictures from which she’ll select just one to inspire a new piece of work. And Fraser’s medium is as unique as her methodology — she works with batik, large pieces of cloth that have been wax-resist dyed. She either projects the image onto the cloth to trace it or sketches it freehand, but the end result is a massive, billowing silk panel that gives a new perspective of the earth. For this particular show, the first-ever Piccolo Spoleto Invitational Exhibit at the Citadel, Fraser has focused on Lowcountry coastlines, including the landscapes along the Ashley River by the military college. The batiks will be hung from the cathedral ceiling of the Daniel Library. They’ll be accompanied by didactic photographs, tools, and batik materials to give some insight into how her pieces are created.
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