40 Acres Art Gallery Displays Quilts by African-American Quilters

 Marion Coleman, Susan #3, 2006
Stitched fiber collage portrait, 63 x 53 inches

by Donna Hussain

A collection of quilts sewn by African-American quilters from northern California has been on display at the 40 Acres Art Gallery in Sacramento, California for the past two months.  The exhibit of quilts, titled Amazing Wonders, was curated by Kim Curry- Evans, the gallery’s director, who worked with many individuals and organizations in the community to plan and promote the show. Most influential was Dr. Patricia Turner, a Professor of African-American Studies at UC Davis, who met with Mrs. Curry-Evans while working on a book on African-American quilters (later published as Crafted Lives).  The meeting sparked the idea of an exhibit of quilts by African-American quilters from northern California at the 40 Acres Art Gallery.

Patricia Bass Bailey, African Sawtooth, 2008, cotton fabric and thread, 

African embroidery designs, 53 x 53 inches

Given the large number of accomplished African-American quilters in the area whose work met the artistic standards of the 40 Acres Art Gallery, the final selection of quilts for the show was difficult.   Wall space in the gallery limited the number of quilts that could be placed on display.  Mrs. Curry-Evans wanted to show the cultural and artistic vitality of Africa-American quilters and a wide range of quilt-making styles.  In addition, she was cognizant as the gallery’s reputation as a teaching gallery. She wanted all of the quilts to be learning experiences for viewers.

 Sherry Byrd, Bars Medallion, 1992

Synthetic velvet, hand pieced and quilted, 99 x 78 inches

In a visitor’s booklet on Amazing Wonders, Dr. Turner has written an essay that explains how the quilts on display “offer not only insights into the culture of quilt making, but also provide valuable launching pads for discussions about African-American culture.” For example, Connie Horne’s quilt Fiber of Slavery: Strong Women Picking Cotton invites the viewer to consider the historical evidence that few women slaves were domestic workers.  Most shared in the physical demands of fieldwork along with their male counterparts.

Connie Horne, Fiber of Slavery - Strong Women Picking Cotton, 2007

Applique and machine quilted with toon and hand dyed fabric, fabric paint, 

42 x 36 inches

 In contrast is Kate Wisham’s Obama Quilt which illustrates the strides forward of African-Americans in contemporary American society.

 Katie Wishom, Obama Quilt, 2009

Collection of cotton t-shirts, machine stitched, 79 x 52 inches

Angie Tobias’s quilt Bars Medallion is drawn from the collection of Eli Leon, who claims that the bold asymmetrical stripes of the quilt demonstrate ”that African-derived aesthetic impulses and preferences for irregular patterning, bright colors, and horizontal strip constructions remain embedded in the creative imaginations of many black quilters.” This statement is certain to evoke heated discussion.

 Angie Tobias, Bars Medallion, 1984

Satin fabrics, hand pieced and quilted, 65 x 47 inches

The 40 Acres exhibit has been well received by the public.  Unfortunately the exhibit at the Sacramento gallery will close on December 23rd.  However, Amazing Wonders will reopen at the Richmond Arts Center in Richmond, CA in January. If you live in the Bay Area, do attend the show.  As Patricia Turner writes in the 40 Acres booklet, “Each of the quilts … reflects the hard work and vision of someone both talented and disciplined, someone able to bring to fruition a complicated and time consuming process.  Taken together, all of the quilts in this exhibit speak to the aesthetic dexterity, spirit and tenacity of African-American quilters.  They offer multiple lessons for all of us.”

 Johnnie Wade, Star Medallion, 1989

Cotton and cotten blends, hand pieced and quilted, 71 x 88 inches

The quilt exhibit Amazing Wonders will be on display at the Richmond Arts Center from January 26–March 13, 2010.  More information can be found at: http://www.therichmondartcenter.org/. 

LaQuita Tummings, Goddess, 2009

Hand quilted and hand appliqued, incorporation prismacolor pencil, 
33 x 31 inches

California quilter, Donna Hussain, has exhibited in major quilt shows around the country, authored books, and is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus. Click on her name to see all of her past articles.


The photo shows Donna with her husband, Pascha.

40 Acres Art Gallery Displays Quilts by African-American Quilters

Harry Belafonte Speaks: Race, Identity and Clarity

I just happened to find this video on youtube and thought it important enough to share. Harry Belafonte has always represented dignity, gentleness and grace to me. I admit that I started listening to the video because I was a bit surprised at his baldness, but then his words, his beautiful ability to see deeply into our history captivated my attention:



An old man now, Belafonte does not come to this deep-sightedness as a sudden revelation, but rather from a long struggle and hard work in the civil rights movement. He was in the middle of it all in the 1960's and continued to advocate not only for equality among blacks and whites, but that all of us might reach our potential as whole people, as a whole nation.



Unafraid to speak out against the Bush Administration, Harry Belafonte engaged himself in debating the deterioration of all of our civil liberties. I grew up with this smooth, soft voice. In him I see a role model who can excel at his gift, be filled with laughter and joy, extend a hand to artists in other nations, live fully and yet find deliberation, meaning and depth in every step of the way. A beautiful man, I count myself blessed to have had him as one of my shining stars in the great night of life!

Harry Belafonte - Island In The Sun live
Uploaded by paleopale

Harry Belafonte Speaks: Race, Identity and Clarity

Karoda's Quilted Poetry: The Design Element of Words

Words on Fabric, Postcard by Karoda

by Karoda (aka Karen R. Davis)

I never thought of myself as a visual artist until a few years ago. My first calling was that of a poet which I embraced at a young age, but after years of dealing with pulmonary disease as an adult, I found myself in a space of not being able to hear the poems inside of me. Hearing is essential to a poet. Instead I started dreaming in images and seeing inspiration in quilt designs in architecture, from reading literature, etc. What I was dreaming and seeing intuitively I knew to be quilts. Much of where I started in 2003, when I jump-started this journey for the 2nd time, felt like learning to walk when I really wanted to just dance (similar to those teen-age years when I wanted to grow up too fast). I often was side tracked by responding to the work of other quilters and what I liked…I wanted to try every technique and not miss any of the fun. I worked small, not wanting to commit in size to a technique that I hadn’t mastered or enjoyed. I still have much of those small studies around wondering what I’m going to do with them.

Words, dye and circular quilting as design elements.

Juanita Yeager, my quilt guru, had planted the idea of doing “series” work and keeping a journal and working a bit larger. I begin to pay attention more closely to my body, thoughts, and emotions and what I responded to with passion. Quilts with text, particularly hand writing, excited me. After seeing the quilts of Angela Moll, it still didn’t strike me to do it in my own work. The turning points started at the end of 2007 when poet Estella Majozo invited me to be a part of the Artist-In-Revolution Poet’s series, a community arts project conducted from her downtown studio. I had the month of December and although it had been many, many years since I did a public reading, I didn’t have any new work to share and was somewhat reluctant, but that experience showed itself to be the fire I needed to begin my second series work, aptly named Poetry Series. I immediately started writing my poems onto my hand dyed cloth in hues of red, green, yellow. The colours where chosen to align with the African American cultural flag except for the yellow which is the colour for spirit based on the flag Rastafarians made world famous. These colours communicate vibrancy and life to me. Drawing upon my culture and heritage, making the collective meaningful in a well integrated way personally, has been a preoccupation since my early teen years and something I committed to developing as I matured and this is being interjected to what I do visually.

Superimposing layers of dye and letters, with an applique focal point.

I wanted this series to come from the deepest part of my interior and in order to make sure I stay in that space, I answer questions I pose to myself around why and what for each step in the process for The Poetry Series. Allowing some words to show through and others not, I ask myself why and what does it mean to me…when stamping on the circles, I repeat the questions, and so on for the following layers. I know that it will never be possible for the viewer to know all of my answers or most of them, but that is not why I do it. I have to answer the questions as a way of getting and staying in the interior space I want these quilts to emerge out of.

"Answer the questions..." Words exploring design.

The second fire for The Poetry Series came while attending a workshop with Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn in Ohio where I learned how to print and write using dye paints and how to evaluate my work to achieve more complexity in the layers I put on my fabrics. The third fire came when I took a very basic intro class in casual lettering with Laurie Doctor. In the workshop with Morgan/Benn I was working with freedom and a wide range of motion in writing and with Doctor it was more about focus and control...opposite skills that provide me a wider range in selecting how to place my poems on the cloth.

Words in the background, giving form to pattern.

My daughter asked me what was the point of writing for it not to be legible. I’m not interested in the poem being completely legible or read in its entirety. For me, that would be a book. I’m interesting in my handwriting being used as an original design element and the viewer seeing the writing as a clue for the quilt’s foundation and as part of the mystery in it. Handwriting is so personal. People can identify you by it. Handwriting is a very intimate and experts in the field can infer personality traits by examining an individual’s handwritten marks.

"Handwriting is very intimate."
-Karoda

Also, the making of these quilts is the embodiment of Sankofa, a concept that translates into knowing where you’ve been in order to progress forward. As I read and re-write my poem onto fabric, it becomes an act of breaking open the seal on my present and future in merging the literary and the visual.

Word and quilting swirl.

So far, I have 3 studies and one completed quilt and two laying on the cutting table that need a binding, and fabrics on the design wall being auditioned for the next one. While working on this series, I’ve concluded that constructing poems and constructing quilts is very similar…weighing the pauses, periods, and words in a poem, its rhythm and texture, and evaluating the effectiveness and intent of a poem is no different from weighing the hues and values of colour, the spaces, shapes and lines, the rhythm and texture, and the effectiveness and intent of a quilt. I don’t know or want to know where this will lead, but I know I’m committed to writing on my cloth and using my poems as a foundation for a long time to come because it feels like the me I love the most.

Bringing the elements together in color and quilting.

***the quilts in the Poetry Series can be viewed at my website and I have documented my journey in my blog.




Find more photos like this on Fiber Focus

Karoda has been an active member in our Fiber Focus Group. Clicking on her slide show will take you to her page there.

Karoda's Quilted Poetry: The Design Element of Words

Faith Ringgold: Stories and Struggle Through Art Quilts

A Family Portrait, 1997

Acrylic on canvas; painted and pieced border 79.5 x 80"
From the Series: The American Collection; #2 Private Collection

Faith Ringgold has been around for a long time now. Born in Harlem in 1930 makes her 79 years old this year. I remember when I first saw her work in a book about 20 years ago. Assuming that she was a Grandma Moses type of icon, I thought she was old back then. But, new work and children's books kept showing up on the scene. Finally, a couple of years ago, I decided to check out her website and was amazed at her body of work! She has made over 200 story quilts and has an enormous list of credits that include her children's books and other work. A friend once said that women artists only become famous when they are dead or over 70, even harder for minorities. Not true for Faith Ringgold. She has been at the forefront of many art movements in the United States for a long time. Her pioneer efforts address race issues head on, but transcend them as she also experimented with the medium itself and with how she presented her work.

Faith Ringgold: A View From the Studio

Faith Ringgold identifies the 1960's as the critical time which informed her work. But, she found that although the Civil Right's movement was on everybody's mind in her circle, the art world did not reflect the changes that were taking place, the questions that were being asked. She documented the time through her paintings and then evolved into her story quilts which continued to explore issues of race, identity and gender.

We Came to America, 1997
Acrylic on canvas; painted and pieced border
74.5 x 79.5"
From the Series: The American Collection; #1
Private Collection

If one does not know her story, her work looks like it would fit in with Howard Finster and other outsider artists, folks who have the calling but no formal training. Yet, Ringgold was trained as a classical painter with an MFA and has a long list of academic and work credits. Her choice of using stories as both a quilt and as an art form helped re-define quilting in the United States, pushing forward the growth of art quilts. The IRS (the tax guys here) recognize an individual's profession by the income they make. So, a painter who doesn't sell her work but makes a living as a waitress is in fact, a waitress, according to the IRS. Faith Ringgold's example is one of long years of sweat and vision that produced a cohesive, recongnizable, individual body of work.

Church Picnic, 1988
Acrylic on canvas, fabric border
74 x 69"
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Le Cafe des Artistes, 1994
Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border
79.5 x 90"
From the Series: The French Collection Part II; #11
Private Collection

Here are a couple of short clips that give a brief glimpse into the power of this woman's presence: This next clip is long, one hour and 45 minutes, showing Ringgold at a lecture where she talks about her work through a slide presentation. I almost missed it because her name was misspelled. At the end, there is an excellent question and answer period: I learned several things in this video that you might also find interesting:

• Faith Ringgold paints her story quilts with very thin layers of acrylic paints and uses a black Sharpie for lettering.
• She collaborates with other quilters for the sewing parts of the quilts. For about 10 years this was done with her mother who was a fashion designer.
  
• Her Great-Great-Grandmother was a quilter, her taught her daughter, who taught her daughter, who taught her daughter. Faith's mother had not made a quilt since she was a child until she collaborated with Faith.
• The quilts are often huge. One of her first was about 6 feet high by 12 feet wide. I always assumed that they were small.
• She uses very thin batting and all of the quilts can be rolled up.

The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, 1991
Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border
74 x 80"
From the Series: The French Collection Part I; #4
Private Collection

Faith talks about the struggle of finding her voice as an artist, a Black woman in America and warns that the path is not an easy one. She said something that I would like to remember for the future, "You must know the world to understand your place in it. If you close yourself into a box you will never know who you really are." I have always felt that this is one of the keys toward living an interesting and full life- focus on the other. It is also one of the basic principles in most World religions. Empty yourself so that you might become full. At least, that is how I read this insight.

The Moroccan Holiday, 1997
Acrylic on canvas with pieced fabric border
73.75 x 92"
From the Series: The French Collection Part II; #12
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida

Faith also does emphasize the need for self love and acceptance and how important it was for Black artists to finally use dark colors to reflect the color of their skin. We take so much for granted now that it is always a bit shocking to listen to the limitations artists and others had even twenty or thirty years ago. I was a bit bothered that her website did not have much recent information since 2000. It made me wonder if she is well. But, the long video above was done in the last couple of years and she looks healthy and full of vitality there. My friend may have been right about most of us not achieving fame, even after we are over 70 or dead, but my hope is that Faith Ringgold will continue to mentor us on for many more years. She pushed that door wide open so that we could walk in with confidence and tell our stories.

Note: All of the quilt images are from Faith Ringgold's website. Visit it for a full list of her work. Also visit her exercise on Racial Questions.

Click on the link under the book, not on the image:

Dancing at the Louvre: Faith Ringgold's French Collection and Other Story Quilts

Faith Ringgold: Stories and Struggle Through Art Quilts