Working With What’s Left, 2013, 27” x 3,’ fabric, string, wires, lace
The commissioned quilt is a meditation on the sacrifices made year after year by family members from the past into the present; representing the regression taking place, the increasing scarcity of opportunity, marriage, family life and contentment from one generation to the next. Instead of adding more pieces year after year and making the story and the quilt richer, it appears more and more is being taken away from the contemporary African-American family. Illustrating the complex and creative power of working with what’s left. What does a quilt start to look like and communicate when things are taken back and families have fewer members and less to pass onto the next generation. Working with what’s left brings a family quilt down to his core, to the symbols that started the tradition in the first place.
Working with what's left was made for " A Patchwork Story" exhibition curated by Daonne Huff for Myrtle Windows Gallery.
