From the Front Lines of Climate: Mary Edna Fraser
The old cliche is that a picture is worth a thousand words.
When we started our “States of Change” tumblr, our main goal was to draw from the news of the day to try and convey climate change in a way that is relevant to your every day life. Yet in trying to communicate the complexity, and sometimes beauty, of an ever- shifting landscape due to a mixture of human and natural influences, it is important to take a step back and look at the big picture.
Today’s featured person does just that. Mary Edna Fraser is an accomplished artist who uses the artistic medium of Batik to convey an aerial perspective of a wide range of natural landscapes ranging from lakes and mountains to barrier islands. Currently, she and geoscientist Orrin Pilkey are being featured in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science for their large-scale exhibit of silk batiks on “Our Expanding Oceans”, which corresponds to their most recent book, entitled “Global Climate Change: A Primer”. Below are Mary’s own words describing both the inspiration and methodology behind her work:
“The subject of Climate Change is difficult to understand from a scientific point of view. People feel overwhelmed, and my assignment was to illustrate sea level rise, ocean acidification, glacier and sea ice melting, changing habitats, desertification, and threats to the planet with my large-scale batiks on silk. Showing the vulnerability of individual locations makes it easier to ponder the reality before us a human beings. Half of the artworks were completed prior to the decision to make this book, and the exhibit features more aesthetic silks.”
“Photographing from the open cockpit of my family’s vintage plane translates to silk prayers for the planet. We live in a time when fact is questioned and often scoffed [at]. Perhaps the batiks will help open windows into the minds presently shuttered. Education enlightens and our future [and] depends on honest conversation based on empirical reality.”
All of the pictures shown are from Mary’s new exhibit. If you would like to learn more about them check out this site detailing the location of each picture and the medium used.
Credits: Mary Edna Fraser
