My Aunt Grace
Creative Engineer
Bee in my Bonnet
My Aunt Grace, Naturally preserved florals on hairbands, custom-painted mannequin heads. 12 x 12
Dare You to Wear Me
My Aunt Grace, Naturally preserved florals on hairbands, custom-painted mannequin heads. 12 x 12
Laboutin’s Pearls
My Aunt Grace, Naturally preserved florals on hairbands, custom-painted mannequin heads. 12 x 12
Heartachoke
My Aunt Grace, Naturally preserved florals on hairbands, custom-painted mannequin heads. 12 x 12
This 2 Shell Pass
My Aunt Grace, Naturally preserved florals on hairbands, custom-painted mannequin heads. 12 x 12
STATEMENT
I call myself a Creative Engineer. I dabble and design; concoct and construct, applying my imagination and artisanal skills to all kinds of media. Primarily, I create botanical millinery, which I call Fastenatures, as a nod to British Royalty’s penchant for little hats that appear to be ‘fastened’ to the side of one’s head. My Great Aunt Grace Findley, an early Feminist who opened her own millinery shop in Atlanta Georgia in the early 1950s, encouraged my love of beautiful things in general, and female headware in particular. I channel her superb talent for chapeaux design, but forgo the manmade notions and materials she used in favor of the elegant flora I glean from the fields, woods, and, gardens of my farm in Hopewell. I collect, dry, and preserve mosses, bark, grasses, flowers, seed pods, lichens and weeds and work them into natural sculptures made to be worn by exceptional women on extraordinary occasions. To my mind, nothing manmade compares to the incredible glamour that nature provides in all its seasons, in particular after the initial stages of bloom and blossom have matured into the sartorial elegance of seniority. Aging naturally is another cherished life-lesson from My Aunt Grace. I consider my chapeaux a nexus of Millinery Fashion and Botanical Sculpture. You can call them art if you choose, but what I want you to notice is their whimsical beauty that encourages a closer look at what the true artist, Mother Nature, provides all around us, for free.
BIOGRAPHY
In 1979, Emily Vickers left her native Athens, GA to pursue a Masters Degree at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts Manhattan. She quickly absorbed the city’s zeitgeist and vowed she was a New Yorker for life. While researching the Weimar Republic photographer August Sander for her thesis, she met fine art luminaries Arnold Newman, Irving Penn, Duane Michaels, Ernst Haas, and others. It was Haas’ protégé, Jay Maisel, who convinced Emily that her spirited personality was not suited to gallery work. An internship in Maisel’s legendary Bowery Bank studio led to 12 years of work as studio and production manager. In 1988 she married Tom Mason, Jay’s first assistant and location manager. Coaxed into leaving Manhattan for life on Tom’s Van Dyke Farm in Hopewell, Emily never looked back, and Mason Vickers Productions, LLC was formed in 1994. After 30+ years producing high-end photo shoots for top commercial clients, Emily declared “I’ve been making a living since I was 17; it’s time to make a life”. Drawing her past creative engineering skills as milliner, gardener, designer, leather smith, chef, and tailor back to the front burner, she happily declares now that there aren’t enough hours in the day for creative play!
2025
My Aunt Grace
Creative Engineer
Pièce de Persistance
My Aunt Grace, Nature's Treasures, 12 x 12 x 12
Sea By Sky
My Aunt Grace, Nature's Treasures, 12 x 12 x 12
Natalie Wood
My Aunt Grace, Nature's Treasures, 12 x 12 x 12
Hello Dolly
My Aunt Grace, Nature's Treasures, 12 x 12 x 12
Red Rose Rising
My Aunt Grace, Nature's Treasures, 12 x 12 x 12
STATEMENT
I prefer to call myself a Creative Engineer. ‘Artist’ seems affected for what I do. I dabble, tinker and design; applying my imagination and artistic skills to all kinds of media. Primarily, I create botanical millinery, which I call “Fastenatures”, as a paean to British Royalty’s penchant for little hats that appear to be ‘fastened’ to the side of one’s head.
My Great Aunt Grace Findley, an entrepreneurial Feminist who owned an eponymous millinery shop in Atlanta Georgia in the early 1950s, encouraged my love of beautiful things in general, and feminine headgear in particular. I channel her superb talent for chapeaux design, but forgo the felt, fabric, fur, ribbons, buttons, and manmade notions she used. Instead, I gather inspiration from the elegant flora from the fields, woods, and gardens of my farm in Hopewell. I collect, dry, and preserve mosses, bark, grasses, flowers, seed pods, lichens and weeds and fashion them into natural sculptures made to be worn by exceptional women on extraordinary occasions. To my mind, nothing man made compares to the incredible glamour that nature provides in every season, in particular after the initial stages of bloom and blossom have matured into the serene permanence of seniority.
Reverence for aging naturally is another life-lesson I inherited from My Aunt Grace. I consider my chapeaux a nexus of Millinery Fashion and Botanical Sculpture. You can call them art if you choose, but what I want you to notice is their whimsical beauty that encourages a closer look at what the true artist, Mother Nature, provides all around us, for free.
BIOGRAPHY
In 1979, Emily Vickers left her native Athens, GA to pursue a Masters Degree at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts Manhattan. She quickly absorbed the city’s zeitgeist and vowed she was a New Yorker for life. While researching the Weimar Republic era photographer August Sander for her thesis, she met fine art luminaries Arnold Newman, Irving Penn, Duane Michaels, Ernst Haas, and others. It was Haas’ protégé, Jay Maisel, who convinced Emily that her energetic personality was not suited to gallery work. An internship in Maisel’s legendary Bowery Bank studio led to 12 years of work as studio and production manager.
In 1988 she married Tom Mason, Jay’s first assistant and location manager. Coaxed into leaving Manhattan for life on Tom’s Van Dyke Farm in Hopewell, Emily never looked back, and Mason Vickers Productions, LLC was formed in 1994. After 30+ years producing high-end photo shoots for top commercial clients, Emily declared ‘I’ve been making a living since I was 17; it’s time to make a life’. Drawing her past creative engineering skills as milliner, gardener, designer, leather-smith, chef, and tailor back to the front burner, she happily declares now that there aren’t enough hours in the day for creative play!
Each of my pieces are 12 X 12 X 12. They are Fastenatures … natural botanical sculptures to be worn and/or displayed. Materials are nature’s treasures.