Fire Island (New York), 1995, 107 by 55 inches

rrin H. Pilkey, a geologist, met Mary Edna Fraser, a batik artist, in 1993 on a research outing to Cape Lookout National Seashore. The two soon realized that they shared a cause: preserving the barrier islands that help protect mainlands from the buffeting of oceans around the world. By the time their ship returned to its berth at Beaufort, North Carolina, they had shaken hands on an unusual collaboration that would, in Pilkey’s words, “communicate our vision” by combining Fraser’s silk batiks with his knowledge of the science of barrier islands. Says Fraser, “I would be a visual voice for his scientific mind.”

The result is a handsome 309-page book, A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands, published by Columbia University Press, with text by Pilkey, James B. Duke Professor emeritus of geology and director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, and Fraser. An excerpt follows:

We believe that barrier islands are akin to coral reefs,” Pilkey wrote. “Both are endangered by the activities of humans, and both are essentially irreplaceable once they are lost. Whereas coral reefs can be killed almost overnight, barrier islands take decades, even a century, to die. It is much easier to be concerned with a short-term problem than with one that may occur when the next generation is in charge, but if the islands are to be preserved or sensibly developed, we must take the long view….

“ There are as many ways in which barrier islands evolve as there are barrier islands…. The islands in Colombia are affected by the high sea levels and increased storminess during El Ni-o weather events and have a huge sand supply rushing down the slopes of the nearby Andes Mountains…. The Niger Delta islands suffer from sand starvation because of sand trapping by upstream dams.

“ Although all these islands are vastly different in many ways, they have much in common. Each is a pile of unconsolidated sand or sometimes gravel, longer than it is wide. In front of each is an ocean, and behind it is a lagoon…. Nature creates islands because they create the most efficient edges of continents, a way of coming close to a line of sand that is neither eroding nor building up….

“ People do not live peacefully with barrier islands. It seems that the richer the country is, the less placid the coexistence…. The barrier islands of the globe seem to be the canaries in the coal mine. They warn us, before other features on the surface of the Earth do, that the sea level is rising, our planet is forever changing, and the good old days when nature seemed cooperative and malleable at the shoreline are gone forever.”

In artist Mary Edna Fraser’s own words: “My interest in the fragile ribbons of sand that separate the oceans from the mainland is a direct result of flying with my father and brother as pilots over the barrier islands of the Atlantic Coast…. What I have observed is both breathtakingly beautiful and disturbing….

My medium is batik: silk cloth colored by hand using a modern variation of an ancient method of dyeing textiles. I prefer to investigate a region firsthand before beginning a batik: hiking the terrain, exploring the waterways by boat and air, collecting rock and shell samples, and making on-site watercolor studies. Maps and nautical charts provide accurate data with which to plan expansive compositions. I use satellite and space shuttle imagery…for distant regions that I cannot photograph from the air myself….

“ My intent is to convey the essence of place…. My goal is to use art as a vehicle to make the fragility of barrier islands known as an important environmental concern. The batiks convey perspectives that the human eye, maps, and ordinary cameras cannot reveal. I hope the art will contribute to the appreciation of the dynamic nature of these movable strips of sand and will act as a catalyst for the preservation of barrier islands for future generations.”

The text and images are from A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands, published by Columbia University Press.

All images are of original batiks by Mary Edna Fraser. © 2003 Columbia University Press. Used with permission.