PATCHWORK
2023-present

"Her colors are a tonic; her lines twist and shimmy. The wild card is the black gesso she layers in between. Look at the energetic echoes!"
-Cate McQuaid​

This expanding body of work emerged when I rediscovered a quilt made by my great-grandmother.  Big Mama lived as a sharecropper in Egypt, Mississippi, and though she may not have thought of herself as an artist, her work speaks in the language of line and pattern, as mine does today. In this body of work, I strive to speak back to her - to draw a connection, literally and figuratively, between Big Mama’s work and my own, and between my ancestors and myself.  These lines invoke paths of migration, train tracks, ladders, curls, bloodlines, and sight lines.  Big Mama’s quilt has become a tangible touchpoint between myself and those who came before me; a portal to both past and future.  This series of work represents the intergenerational conversation that has surfaced through this extraordinary family artifact.
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Click on each thumbnail to view full artwork image.​​​