The quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, have skyrocketed to fashion- and art-world fame. Jeannette Cooperman traveled to their home turf to learn how they work and how they feel about all the acclaim:
Can what is useful be art? Those who burn to be seen as Artists wallow in self-pity when their work is not recognized; they have tied themselves up in knots trying to Make Art. I look at these ladies, piecing together scraps of paper on broad knees, then stitching quilts that will be warm and loved and beautiful no matter what.
“We weren’t trying to make art,” Mary Ann says, easing into a low chuckle. “Still don’t know nothing about art.” Yet to begin a quilt, she says, “I go by my colors. Quilting is just like designing a dress.” People around here can recognize her quilting rows even on an unsigned quilt. She eyeballs them an inch apart, and they are perfectly parallel, as evenly spaced as rows of cotton, but never on a grid. “I stay away from curves, but when they show up, I just follow them,” she says. “And I love triangles. For some reason, a triangle does something to a quilt.”
Adds tension and dynamic energy, an art teacher might say—but “does something” is what you need to know. Curious, I ask if she has ever seen the famous Amish or Shaker quilts.
“No,” she says, not the least bit interested. “I don’t like patterns. I do my own designs.”
In Gee’s Bend, inspiration comes from prayers, dreams, experiences.
“It’s dependent on how you are feelin’ that day,” Doris Pettway Mosley told me earlier. “All your feelings, you put in that quilt.”
Then you refine. “If it didn’t look too sweet to me,” Mary Lee Bendolph once said, “I’d take it back off.”
from Longreads https://ift.tt/VuG6jBi
Check out my bookbox memberships! 3, 7, or 15 vintage books a month sent to organization of your choice, or to yourself!
https://ift.tt/avS9fKo
