Distinguished Craft Artists:
Mary Jackson
Mary A. Jackson, a basketmaker from Charleston, South Carolina, is a 2008 recipient of the Macarthur Fellowship. The fellowship, besides being known as the genius award, comes with an annual stipend of $100,000 for five years.
Her baskets derive from traditional Gullah basketry that dates back to colonial America and even further in Africa. The basic materials are local fibers, sweetgrass, pine needles and bulrushes, which are laced (sewn) with strips of Palmetto palms. The baskets and basketmakers were essential during the early days of rice cultivation in South Carolina. The practice and traditions of basketmaking have been passed down through the families with many familiar with the baskets from the stands along Route 17 in Mt. Pleasant outside Charleston. As Mary learned basketry from her mother, so she has passed those skills on to her daughter and granddaughter. The baskets are strong, durable, and of enduring beauty.
Jackson makes traditional baskets as well as her original contemporary designs. She has said that after years of learning and making the traditional designs, she became bored. She wanted and needed to make her own contributions to the genre. Her baskets require rigorous craftsmanship and long hours of work. Her special commissions usually require two or more months to complete. Her designs, while mostly functional, are larger than traditional baskets, with greater use of the color variations in the fibers.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of various museums from the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston to the Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin. She had her first museum show at the Gibbes Museum in 1984. She had been featured in exhibitions and is in the permanent collection at the Renwick Gallery. Jackson was one of the artists featured in the 2000 show, Five Women in Crafts. She was portrayed as one if the artists in the video series produced by the Renwick. She is also a featured artist in Craft in America, which is touring the United States, and for which there is a catalog by Jo Lauria and Steve Fenton.
She is a regular participant of the Smithsonian Craft Show, which was among her first stops on the national stage. She was selling locally, when a visitor to Charleston asked her to apply to the Smithsonian show. She did in 1984, and has gone on to show at major craft shows annually. She is slated to exhibit at the Washington Craft Show on November 7-9 at the Washington Convention Center.