My name is Marcia Morse Mullins. I live and work in Lakeland, Florida. The vessels and sculptural forms that I create grow from a passion for creating quality artwork from hand pounded black ash and other natural materials.
My journey began in the 1980s, when Mike Sagataw taught me the traditions of black ash basketry. Mike was a Potawatomi elder with a deep reverence for honoring the ancestors' knowledge. Following his teachings, I honor each felled tree and believe the spirit of an ash tree remains within the forms woven from its wood.
I also studied white oak splint basketry under Connie and Tom McColley in Chloe, WV. Tom gave me my first gnarly branch and challenged me to explore sculptural forms. I committed to a full year of experimenting with form over function and promised to burn any weaving that Tom deemed as having fallen short of the challenge. Nothing but firewood hit the wood stove and my weaving skills improved exponentially.
Then life overtook artistic expression. Raising two children required full-time employment and I found the meetings industry to be a good fit. A big promotion moved us away from my beloved black ash, and I soon felt an overwhelming need to weave so I went in search of a basket tree. Now I travel 1300 miles to a northern cedar swamp each year, where one tree is selected and processed into high-quality weaving splint. Old habits die hard, if at all.
Installations of my work began in 1996 with Branching Out at the Alberta House Art Gallery in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, an invitational exhibit at the Art Gallery of Algoma (Ontario), and the Oconomowoc (Wisconsin) Festival of the Arts. Recently, my work has appeared in local art shows, national exhibitions, invitational fine art exhibits, and a year-long ArtPOP billboard installation representing the fine art produced in Polk County, Florida. The landing page for this website features the basket from that installation. In 2018, I was invited to present a seminar on black ash basketry at Disney's Epcot International Festival of the Arts. 2019 began with Nesting Instinct, an extended Art in the Park installation utilizing living vines around a mature oak tree.
The 2017 mini-documentary below was filmed, directed, and produced by Paul O'Neill as part of his "Eye For Art" series on Vimeo.
My journey began in the 1980s, when Mike Sagataw taught me the traditions of black ash basketry. Mike was a Potawatomi elder with a deep reverence for honoring the ancestors' knowledge. Following his teachings, I honor each felled tree and believe the spirit of an ash tree remains within the forms woven from its wood.
I also studied white oak splint basketry under Connie and Tom McColley in Chloe, WV. Tom gave me my first gnarly branch and challenged me to explore sculptural forms. I committed to a full year of experimenting with form over function and promised to burn any weaving that Tom deemed as having fallen short of the challenge. Nothing but firewood hit the wood stove and my weaving skills improved exponentially.
Then life overtook artistic expression. Raising two children required full-time employment and I found the meetings industry to be a good fit. A big promotion moved us away from my beloved black ash, and I soon felt an overwhelming need to weave so I went in search of a basket tree. Now I travel 1300 miles to a northern cedar swamp each year, where one tree is selected and processed into high-quality weaving splint. Old habits die hard, if at all.
Installations of my work began in 1996 with Branching Out at the Alberta House Art Gallery in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, an invitational exhibit at the Art Gallery of Algoma (Ontario), and the Oconomowoc (Wisconsin) Festival of the Arts. Recently, my work has appeared in local art shows, national exhibitions, invitational fine art exhibits, and a year-long ArtPOP billboard installation representing the fine art produced in Polk County, Florida. The landing page for this website features the basket from that installation. In 2018, I was invited to present a seminar on black ash basketry at Disney's Epcot International Festival of the Arts. 2019 began with Nesting Instinct, an extended Art in the Park installation utilizing living vines around a mature oak tree.
The 2017 mini-documentary below was filmed, directed, and produced by Paul O'Neill as part of his "Eye For Art" series on Vimeo.
Member: National Basketry Organization, Fiber Arts Network, Professional Association of Visual Artists