Gee's Bend Quilts

Strips by Annie May Young, 1975   corduroy, 95 x 105 inches

 Annie May Young

Medallion by Annie May Young 1976  work clothes  108 x 77 

This group of astonishing quilts may be the most important influence on improvisational contemporary quiltmaking ever.

Strips by Annie May Young 1975  corduroy, 101 x 66 inches

At this time in history where there is revolutionary hope for black American's, I want to pay respect to the makers of these inspiring works of art.
I've been very influenced by these strong women artists.
I continue to be influenced and I'm not the only one.
It's time to thank them.
This post and the ones I am making on instagram are because I want to amplify their voices.

Four Block by Loretta Pettway 1960 used men's clothing 78 x 73 inches

 Loretta Pettway

Brick Layer by Loretta Pettway 1970  denim 84 x 66 inches

There is so much flair in the bold geometrics.
I  love that these quilts are made from men's and women's work clothes
house dresses, cotton sacks, and scraps of corduroy left over from the Freedom Quilting Bee.

String Quilt by Loretta Pettway 1960  used men's clothing 94 x 76 inches

There are so many questions now in this most strange and frightening time.
The pandemic has not stopped.  The world is broken.
The systemic illness of global racism is finally being addressed.

How can the world be truly fixed?  Is it possible?
This is a time for all of us to think boldly.
This is an oportunity to re-imagine.
Where do we begin?

Medallion by Lorraine Pettway 1974  work clothes 1974 

Lorraine Pettway

I've given links to the makers in this post, but they all go to the same website.  Souls Grown Deep
This last link takes you to a description of the purpose of the foundation, which in a few words is to support and advocate for the African American artists from the southern parts of the USA.   This organization is the caregiver of the Gee's Bend Quilts and welcomes donations.  I've donated and I encourage you to as well.  Here is a direct link to donate.  It's something.  I thank the many who are protesting and being so brave.  I have some hope.

I'm also putting a link here to the Strategist  that provides ways to dontate to support black lives, the victims, and the activists.
 
"The choice of not paying attention has led to death in others."  Rev Lucas Johnson

 It's hard, but people are ready for this now.  The world has to change."

Do you know what a symbol is?

I've been absorbed with assembling a piece from vintage funeral wear.
Doing this helped me come back to and appreciate ordinary daily life.

The time before this pandemic crises seems like from another world. 
What was important for me at the beginning of March seems trivial now. 
My priorities and concerns have completely changed.

I've been having scattered disjointed thoughts, moodiness, despondency, weeping, and anxiousness.
Stitching into pieces already in progress (such as this one) helped immensely.

I reasoned that if I died, finished quilts would be easier to deal with. 

I'm still not able to do my real (usual) work - but I will someday.
This project was cathartic.

There was no warning that I would make this artwork.
It came all of a sudden and was a release.

Alicia Henry

I went back to the Powerplant last week to see Alicia Henry's powerful exhibition, Witnessing for the second time.

 "Henry creates two-dimensional singular figures and group compositions that are commanding in their grace and expressiveness. "

 "Tender renditions of mother and child appear, as do groupings of more females that signifiy formations of families within communities"

 "Through their direct gaze and erect composure, Henry's multigenerational survivors exude a powerful strength and confidence.  They stand in anticipation of an egalitarian future - a utopian goal that underpins much of Henry's work"

 I am visiting the Powerplant in Toronto more this year because our daughter April (in above photo to demonstrate the gigantic scale of these wall mounted figures) is working right next door at Harbourfront craft and design studios as a resident artist this year.

I want to share the powerful simplicity and the confident handling of materials by Alicia Henry.  I was really moved and inspired by this exhibition. 

All text in quotes is from the pamphlet provided by The Power Plant. 

about love

only the earth lives forever, 2008 by Judy Martin
 favourite shirt on gessoed paper with hand stitch and painted cloth border

full of emotions

crying easily

needing a generous kind of love

the reverse side of newest stitching by Judy Martin
wool thread on linen   work in progress

having an inner world

seeking passion, intelligence

finding magic

feel better bundles by Judy Martin 2015
hemlock twigs wrapped with cloth and thread over a period of years.  (three times so far) 

"I tell you, the more I think, the more I feel, 

that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people"  

Vincent Van Gogh

my dear friend

only the earth lives forever  judy martin 2008  shirt fragment, paper, thread, painted fabric border, mounted on canvas

whatever you are is what you are

manitoulin barn montage (detail) judy martin 2008  photography, mylar, acryilc marker

wounds, secrets, delights, fears, beauty
all enfolded into the immensity of a loving mystery

bundled journal pages, sealed with hot wax, judy martin 2008

all of you is enough

judy martin 2018

The images of my art are from 2008 digital files (that's ten years ago). 

I thought it would be easy to sort them out, but it's not.

The portrait at the bottom was taken last week.

The text is a fragment from a longer poem by Sudbury poet-artist-friend  Ray Laporte

sunlight and shadow

This quilt is only about thirty years old but it is worn out.   Perhaps that's because I made it from sewing scraps and worn family clothing.  In the photo above, my fingers show where the chambray from a favourite skirt has practically disappeared.

 

I used to sew all my own clothes, and some of the girls' when they were small.  As I look at the fabrics in this sunlight and shadow quilt, memories flood over me of that time in my life.  The cloth is from skirts, tops, children's sun dresses, or scraps left over from baby quilts I made for friends. I find it interesting that the solid colours are harder to place in my mind than the prints.  At the time I made this piece, (early 80's) I only purchased new cloth for home decor, clothing, or baby gifts.  In a way, these are all 'found' fabrics.

I gave the quilt to my dad when he and my mother moved from the family farm to their condo in Kingston in 1987.
He used it.
He would 'go horizontal' on top of it in the afternoons, and under it during the night.

This year during some of my visits with dad, I've been trying to mend areas.
I'm adding newer fabrics, newer memories, patching them over the worn spaces.
I think that I'm adding strength.
Might as well try.
Dad turns 92 next month.

nui project

hand work by Keisuke Nomaguchi (born 1976)  nylon-wool yarn, cotton thread, hand stitch

embroidered ready made shirt by Keisuke Nomaguchi
His stitches cover the surface, and the shirt shrinks by more than half, becoming very thick.

embroidered ready made shirt by Setusko Mori (born 1955).
Her stitches overlap themselves,and she repeats them to achieve dot-like shapes.

detail of above   (cotton shirt, cotton threads, hand stitch)

These images are from the Nui Project books, documents of the embroidery work made at a rehabilitation facility for mentally handicapped people in Kagoshima Japan, Shobu Gakuen.   The Nui Project uses ready-made shirts as a base for embroidery. That the shirts become impossible to wear as they become distorted with embroidery stitches that have no names adds magic.  Or nature.

"The work is composed within the constraints of the extremely narrow scope of the immediate visual field.......Staying within that narrow scope of the field of view, without a plan for the composition as a whole, generates an emergence, an unfolding, that evokes the beauty created by nature."   Shin Fukumori, director of Kobo Shobu

The content in this post is taken from two books, Nui Project and Nui Project 2.  The books were published in commemoration of the exhibition held at the creative growth art center in Oakland California in 2003, Fabulous Fabrics: Made in Japan, Yukiko Koide curator.

The books were recommended to me by Sandra Brownlee and by Karen Thiessen.

credo/indigo

 I believe that there is a mysterious and graceful and miraculous coherence stitched through this world.

 I believe that everything is prayer.

I believe that love is our greatest and hardest work.
text :  Brian Doyle
images:  indigo dyed damask and artist's coat.

artist's coat

White linen coat, made from one long piece of fabric half of which was slit vertically, then sides seamed, edges hemmed.  Pocketed, a sash instead of buttons, I plan to dye it indigo.

Created for April who described it from a coat she tried on in New York city last May.

 sewing machine in our sleeping cabin

 sweet grass braids

my darlings on Laddie's rock

Garments are for our outsides but they reflect our insides.

old journals

"If the task at hand gives you fear,

walk off the cliff and build your wings as you fall."

Ray Bradbury, sci-fi writer

The artwork is by Betty Goodwin, Montreal artist.
The quote was found in my 2006 journal.