Juliette May Fraser: A Kama'āina Life in Art

Abstract

Juliette May Fraser (1887-1983) was distinguished as the first artist born in Hawai'i whose artistic focus was on Hawaiian myth, culture and nature. Her earliest mural (1938) was produced for a World's Exhibition in San Francisco and is now displayed at Hamilton Library at the University of Hawai'i. Her murals focusing on Hawaiian myths grace the walls of public building in Hawai'i including the State Library, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and Bilger Hall at the University. May Fraser was also an accomplished writer, producing her book Ke Anuenue in 1952 and contributing numerous articles of art criticism for Honolulu newspapers. Later in life she frescoed and painted every inch of a small chapel in Chios, Greece as a "gift from the people of Hawai'i to the people of Greece." A Fraser mosaic mural greets students and staff when the arrive at Mid-Pacific Institute and her sweeping Mexican tile mural welcomes students to Benjamin Parker School. She attended Punahou School in Honolulu, Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the Art Students League (ASL) in New York.