Gullah fiber artist Mary Jackson was born February 15, 1945, and grew up in the Seven Mile area of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. She learned the family tradition of basketry at age four from her mother and grandmother. Jackson explained that as a child “it was a chore; making baskets was something we were expected to do in the summer.” Her inspiration now “comes from what was done before and evolves from old forms, like the traditional rice basket, which is a wide plate with a raised edge.”[1] In her work, she incorporates strips of palmetto, long-leaf pine needles, and bulrush for color and pattern.
Jackson moved to New York City after she graduated from high school and remained there for about a decade, during which time she attended secretarial school at night. She returned to South Carolina in 1972 and worked at an administrative job in the biochemistry department at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, until her son was diagnosed with chronic asthma at eighteen months in 1980. Following in her grandmothers’ footsteps, she began making and selling baskets at the city market on the weekends. Coastal development, especially resorts and gated communities, threatened the availability of sweetgrass, so Jackson learned how to grow it with the help of local conservationists and a horticulturalist from Clemson University in South Carolina. In addition, the Historic Charleston Foundation donated land at the McLeod Plantation on James Island for sweetgrass cultivation.
The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston launched Jackson’s career as an artist and has been the only institution to give her a solo exhibition, in 1984. In 1988 she co-founded the Mount Pleasant Sweetgrass Basketmakers’ Association to preserve the tradition. That same year she traveled to West Africa and has recounted, “It gave me inspiration and encouragement to continue my work. It was wonderful to stand where my roots started.”[2] Jackson currently lives on Johns Island north of Charleston, and her husband and son help gather sweetgrass for her and her daughter; she is also teaching her granddaughter how to make baskets. Jackson maintains a studio in Charleston.
PMA Collection
Notes
[1] Jackson quoted in Hunt 2019.
[2] Jackson quoted in Lovelace 2015.
References
Brown, Nic. 2016. “A Lowcountry Legend: Mary Jackson.” Garden and Gun. Accessed February 1, 2022. https://gardenandgun.com/feature/a-lowcountry-legend-mary-jackson/.
Hunt, Stephanie. 2019. “Sweetgrass Basket Artist Mary Jackson.” Charleston Magazine, May. Accessed February 1, 2022. https://charlestonmag.com/features/sweetgrass_basket_artist_mary_jackson.
Lovelace, Joyce. 2015. “Root and Branch.” American Craft Magazine, March 26. Accessed February 1, 2022. https://www.craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/root-and-branch.
MacArthur Foundation. 2008. “Mary Jackson.” Accessed February 1, 2022. https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2008/mary-jackson.
Masters of Traditional Arts. 2010. “Mary Jackson.” Accessed February 1, 2022. http://mastersoftraditionalarts.org/artists/151.
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