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WUWM's Susan Bence reports on Wisconsin environmental issues.

Northern Wisconsin couple intertwines art and nature

Mary Burns and John Bates in the studio they added onto the 1907 house they've shared for nearly 40 years next to the Manitowish River.
Susan Bence
/
WUWM
Mary Burns and John Bates in the studio they added onto the 1907 house they've shared for nearly 40 years next to the Manitowish River.

Nearly 40 years ago John Bates and Mary Burns moved from Green Bay to the small community of Mercer and into her grandparents very small house.

“The house was vacant 13 years. It had holes in the roof, lichens on the walls — it’s something we could afford,” John Bates says.

They fixed it up, adding a sun-filled studio upfront. It’s a kaleidoscope of color and materials — yarns, paintings and drawings Mary Burns creates to fuel future projects. The weaving of various sizes occupies what’s left of the wall space. Her themes?

“There’s lots of variety — I like to work with historical images and see if I can recreate that in a weaving,” Burns says.

An extended conversation with Mary Burns and John Bates.

Some depict historical nearby Upper Peninsula mining scenes. “These were an art and science collaboration to have artists give their input on the Penokee mine,” Burns says.

The iron extraction operation was proposed a decade ago. It would have come to life an hour’s drive northwest of Burns’ home and studio. Other weavings are nature-filled: birds in flight, sheep grazing contently.

“Actually, those were in the Yorkshire Dales,” Burns says. “They’re all woven.” The pieces are so detailed, so intricate they resemble photographs. Burns achieves the effect with talent, of course, and a weaving method called Jacquard.

“Jacquard weaving was developed in the early 1800s in France to create patterned weaving, but it was just industrial, so you’ve probably seen Jacquard linens,” she says.

Mary Burton says she has two brains, her own and the computer that helps her create intricate creations with her Jacquard loom.
Susan Bence
/
WUWM
Mary Burton says she has two brains, her own and the computer that helps her create intricate creations with her Jacquard loom.

There’s nothing industrial about Burns’ work or 19th century about her Jacquard, except maybe its name. This weaving is called Bridget in honor of her great-grandmother. Burn’s weaving technique is super high-tech.

“I come up with the design, I make that into a bitmap and I bring it to the computer that works with my Jacquard loom. The computer will read line by line and every thread that needs to be lifted, will get lifted, and I’ll throw the shuttle,” Burns says.

A decade ago Burns embarked on what she describes as a life-changing project, Ancestral Women Exhibition: Wisconsin’s 12 Tribes.

She wove the portraits part of the exhibition, each roughly 31 by 42 inches, over four years. “I’d never done portraiture of any sort prior to that exhibit,” Burns says.

Nor had she worked with any of Wisconsin’s Tribes. “No, I had to reach out, hopefully, have them trust me to allow me to do this work,” Burns says.

Ultimately, each tribe chose a representative and provided Burns with the woman’s photograph.

“These are women who kept their cultures and communities and languages alive. This has grounded me and connected me to these communities,” Burns says.

That project inspired her current one Women + Water, which focuses on women around the world.

Burns says Grandmother Josephine Mandamin from Ontario Canada was critical to the exhibit. "She is credited with expanding water walks and bringing the concept of water walking, which is to do a sacred journey along or around a body of water to raise awareness for that water."
Mary Burns
/
Women + Water
Burns says Grandmother Josephine Mandamin from Ontario Canada was critical to the exhibit. "She is credited with expanding water walks and bringing the concept of water walking, which is to do a sacred journey along or around a body of water to raise awareness for that water."

“Water walkers, limnologists, oceanographers, activists, artists, poets — women from Mozambique to the Arctic, from Lac du Flambeau to Trout Lake to New Zealand,” Burns says.

Acclaimed Limnologist and founder of Mission Blue, Sylvia Earle is featured in Women + Water.
Mary Burton
Acclaimed Limnologist and founder of Mission Blue, Sylvia Earle is featured in Women + Water.

This summer the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland, Wisconsin, will feature 29 of Burn’s weavings. “We’re finishing up the exhibit right now. John’s writing the text for the book that will accompany the exhibit,” Burns says.

That brings us back to John Bates. While Mary Burns started weaving in high school and never stopped, and her husband earned a master's in environmental studies in the 1980s, it was years before Bates could live out his passion as a full-time naturalist and writer. “I worked most of my career with students with disabilities. That’s what I’ve done as the money-making aspect of my life,” Bates says.

He’d squeeze nature and writing into weekends and summers. Now retired, Bates writes and hikes to his heart’s content. What he really wants is to inspire others.

“I formed my own naturalist guide business. It’s like a fishing guide but we’re not catching fish we’re going out and identifying trees and shrubs and wildflowers and birds,” Bates explains.

Bates has contributed to seven books and written nine of his own. His latest, “I wanted to find out what are the last wild undeveloped lakes,” he says.

Bates found "135 or so" that met his criteria for size and accessibility. “They had to be 30 acres or more and had to be surrounded by public land. I wanted to write it up so people can visit,” Bates says.

Bates and Burns’ passions are interwoven.

"The only reason people go on a hike or a paddle with us is because they love this place. But it tends to be an aesthetic blur. Our job is to bring it into focus so they can understand more of all of these species. We try to bring together that intersection of spirituality, if you will, and science. She does that in all of her weaving, and I try to do that through my naturalist work," Bates explains. "It works."

Autumn Peltier is featured in Mary Burn's Women and Water series. Now 18, the Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada, was named Chief Water Commissioner for the Anishinabek Nation in 2019.
Mary Burns
Autumn Peltier is featured in Mary Burn's Women + Water series. Now 18, the Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada, was named Chief Water Commissioner for the Anishinabek Nation in 2019.

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Susan is WUWM's environmental reporter.
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