Natural History - Bay of Plenty Artist

Eastern Bay of Plenty artist Fiona Gedson has her raw materials – ancient and modern – close to hand. Flax bushes grow outside her Opotiki studio, there is copper wire, hemp, mother-of-pearl, paint and plywood on her workbench, bags and boxes of feathers are stashed underneath.

Then there is the artist. Fiona Gedson, a warm-hearted mother of four, is a Pakeha who grew up in Tuhoe country in small places such as Ruatoki and Taneatua before moving to Opotoki and marrying Greg Gedson of the Whakatohea iwi. Her childhood, her environment, the Maori women who taught her to weave and her precious family ties are all expressed in her art, in a unique mix of traditional skills and contemporary vision.

Now she has the best “tool” of all, a quirky new straw-bale studio mounted on a trailer like a giant house-truck. Situated a few metres from Fiona’s rural home in the Waiotahe Valley, it’s become her sanctum as well as her studio. It’s taken her out of “a corner of the living room” where she previously worked into a light-filled space with freedom to explore new mediums.

Fiona’s trademark woven pieces invite close inspection of the materials: feathers, flax, hemp, copper wire, perhaps a hint of mother-of-pearl, all woven into a single tiny kete or cloak. Her endless supply of feathers – shimmering green and blue wild peacock feathers mixed with more muted pheasant and turkey – come courtesy of the hunters in the family. She jokes that they all know “Fiona will want this pheasant.” And she especially needs peacocks: “I’m nothing without peacocks.”

There are also lovely feathery cloaks made entirely of copper wire. Almost sculptural in appearance, they are displayed in chunky, open frames.

Fiona is also putting the finishing touches to a mixed media coastal series charting the encroachment of development and loss of summer icons such as camping grounds, quaint baches and previously untouched beaches. These works – using acrylics, sand, photographs, silver and gold leaf on plywood – reflect her wish that “we might blend a little more with the environment rather than scar it.”

Fiona didn’t intend to be an artist. “I left school to work in a bank in Opotoki but didn’t really enjoy it,” she says. When her son Braden was born twelve years ago it was an opportunity to pick up the textile crafts she’d enjoyed from school days.

Fiona and her mother-in-law Shirley began selling a range of hand-painted garments at markets and it was at an A&P Show in Gisborne that she met kuia who showed her how to weave.

Her skills grew as she attended workshops and classes, as did her pleasure in weaving and the way she could use it to tell stories, express what she saw, heard and felt.

In 1998 Fiona made a pair of woven kete, her first miniatures, both enhanced with handsome frames. They were accepted by a gallery in Opotoki and to her delight they were sold.

So she made more and went to Auckland looking for new markets. She laughs as she tells of a day spent trudging galleries and stores suffering endless rejections, her work considered “too ethnic” or “too Kiwi.” A gallery owner told her, “You’ll need to pull yourself up, dust yourself off and keep going.”

Just when she was “dusted to the bone,” Fiona found Daniella Norling at Trove at Ponsonby, who loved the kete. Trove is one of many places throughout the country now selling Fiona’s work. Her art has been exhibited in Los Angeles and Nontron in France, she has won numerous awards and opera star Kiri Te Kanawa is among those who own her art.

Despite these successes Fiona remains utterly modest, content in the country home she shares with Greg, a mechanic-turned-archaeologist, and children Braden, twelve; Rory, ten; Niamh, six and Fairren, two.

She’s also content in her new studio, built with the help of family and friends and Opotiki firm Sustainable Structures.

“Never do I forget how lucky I am that I can do this and people want my work. I don’t take it for granted.”

Story: Denise Irvine Issue: June 2006 Photographs: Nicola Topping