On the Fall 2021 Cover: Ferrick Mason's New Naturalism
Nature has been the great Muse for centuries, and it is no less impactful today. Pattern designers turn to the natural world for inspiration, with current renditions offering personal and textural takes on trees, leaves, landscapes, and waterscapes.
Pratt Institute-trained painter Alex Mason is no exception to the call of the wild. The result is Ferrick Mason, a hand-rendered fabric and wallpaper line full of graphic, abstract repeats and references to sinuous flora and fauna. The brand graces the cover of Staying Power: Iconic American Designs of Today and Tomorrow, with an interview in the “The New Naturalists” theme.
But Alex Mason wasn’t always in full bloom.
Alex K. Mason with Cacao fresh off the printer. Photo: Courtesy of Alex Mason
Excerpted from Alex Mason’s interview in The Textile Eye Report 10, pages 70-73
A New Environment
Alex: I have a master’s in painting. My husband was in the film industry; we moved to New Zealand because he worked on Lord of the Rings. When that ended and we moved back to Los Angeles he said, “You are not allowed to be a starving artist, you have to work,” but I didn’t know what to do. A number of people told me that my paintings reminded them of textiles. So in 2003 I enrolled in Otis College of Art and Design and started taking night and weekend classes. They taught the classic William Morris method, making repeats by hand and painting in gouache. I’d never painted with gouache before. And I fell in love with it.
Print of Alex K. Mason’s original artwork for Good Fortune, available for purchase on her website. Photo: Courtesy of Alex Mason
Putting Down Roots
Alex: I knew that I wanted to do my own thing, my own line, because I was an artist, but I didn’t know how to go about it. Brian Ferrick’s name kept coming up; he launched Catherine Ireland’s textile line and also Jasper for Michael Smith. So eventually we met and we’re like, “Yeah, let’s do it!” And we had no idea. Neither of us had any clue what we were getting into. We launched in 2008.
Kinkead by Ferrick Mason. Photo: Courtesy of Alex Mason
Fiddle Leaf Fig by Ferrick Mason, Cynthia Ferguson Design. Photo: Donna Griffith
Good Fortune Grand Scale featured on the cover of Report 10