“For some 35 years, Mary Jackson has created baskets true to that long, unbroken tradition [of West Africa], yet with a modern look and an expressive, sculptural flair that’s distinctively hers. She weaves them out of the strong, pliable sweetgrass that grows around the marshes and swamps of coastal South Carolina’s Low Country. . . Elegant and fine, Jackson’s baskets are shown in major art museums and prized by collectors around the world, including Prince Charles and Empress Michiko of Japan. She has received the highest honors, from a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’ to a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship. ‘I always wanted to keep the tradition in mind, to respect what was passed down to me,’ she says of her craft, which she learned from her mother and grandmother at the age of 4. ‘I just wanted to bring it to another level.'” Learn more from the American Craft Council here .
