An Examination of Three African American Quilters in Florida Qadira M
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2009 An Examination of Three African American Quilters in Florida Qadira M. Davidson Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF VISUAL ARTS, THEATRE, AND DANCE AN EXAMINATION OF THREE AFRICAN AMERICAN QUILTERS IN FLORIDA By QADIRA DAVIDSON A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree awarded: Spring Semester, 2009 Copyright © 2008 Qadira Davidson All Rights Reserved The members of the committee approve the dissertation of Qadira Davidson defended on November 7, 2008. _________________________________ Tom Anderson Professor Directing Dissertation _________________________________ Maxine Jones Outside Committee Member _________________________________ David Gussak Committee Member _________________________________ Pat Villeneuve Committee Member Approved: __________________________________________________________ David Gussak, Chair, Department of Art Education _________________________________________________________ Sally McRorie, Dean, College of Fine Arts The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii This is dedicated to my family. Thanks for your confidence in me and cheering me on. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank my major professor, Tom Anderson, for his support and guidance over the years and the members of my committee for their assistance and counsel. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures vii Abstract ix 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem 3 Research Question 3 Supporting Questions 3 Objectives 3 Overview of the Study 4 Rationale 5 Scope and Limitations of the Study 6 Definition of Terms 6 Summary 7 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 8 Quilts: An Overview 8 Historical Overview 10 Traditional African American Quilts 13 European and African Connections 15 The Gee’s Bend Quilters 15 Quilting in Florida 19 The Transition to Art Quilts 21 African American Art Quilts 23 Faith Ringgold-Art Quilter 25 Quilt-Making and Art Education 26 Summary 28 3. METHODOLOGY 29 Statement of the Problem 29 Research Question 29 Supporting Questions 29 Objectives 29 Research Design 30 v Sample 32 Setting 33 Methods 33 Instruments 33 Quilter Survey 38 Summary 38 4. LYNETTE JOHNSON 47 5. LAUREN AUSTIN 87 6. DORIS GEORGE MANNING 121 7. COMPARE AND CONTRAST 136 Thematic Analysis 136 Pre-figured Foci Presented in Synthesis 136 8. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 157 Research Question 157 Supporting Questions 157 Emergent Foci 171 Conclusions 176 Implications 181 APPENDICES 185 REFERENCES 256 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 258 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Lynette at Home 48 Figure 2. Lynette with Ghanaian Fabric 53 Figure 3. Wedding Ring Quilt 57 Figure 4. Lynette with her Warrior Women Quilt 62 Figure 5. Graph Wave Formation 65 Figure 6. Warrior Women with Graph Like Machine Quilting 66 Figure 7. Lynette's Circle Quilt 68 Figure 8. Lynette Lining up Fabric Before Cutting 71 Figure 9. Lynette Before Interview 74 Figure 10. Lynette Cutting and Trying out Fabrics 77 Figure 11. Lynette Browsing through her Fabric Near her Sewing Machine 81 Figure 12. Lynette in her Studio Browsing for Fabric 82 Figure 13. Lynette's Exotic Silks and Embroidered Fabrics 83 Figure 14. Changing Course 85 Figure 15. Midnight in a Wisteria Garden 85 Figure 16. Atlantic Center for the Arts Entrance 89 Figure 17. Visitor Center 90 Figure 18. Sign Outside of Lauren's Studio 92 Figure 19. Lauren’s Sewing Area 92 Figure 20. Lauren in her Studio with her Quilts on the Design Wall 93 Figure 21. Hester's Quilt 94 Figure 22. Lauren Working on the Quilt Bottom 96 Figure 23. Rusted Chain Lauren uses for Fabric Surface Design 97 Figure 24. Longarm Quilting Machine on which Quilts are Draped 98 Figure 25. Machine Quilted and Drawn Hand 99 vii Figure 26. Quilt Featuring Lauren's Mother 101 Figure 27. Lauren's Adinkra Tattoo 103 Figure 28. Lauren Holding her Hand-Dyed Fabric 109 Figure 29. Lauren in the Kitchen to Dye Fabric 112 Figure 30. Dye Baths, Adinkra Stamp, and Chemicals 113 Figure 31. Different Colored Dye Baths in the Kitchen 115 Figure 32. Lauren Preparing to Paint on Fabric 116 Figure 33. Lauren's (Orange) and my Fabric Paintings 117 Figure 34. Lauren's Fabric Painting 118 Figure 35. Adinkra Symbol Made with Discharge Paste 119 Figure 36. Piano Man in Textural Rhythms 120 Figure 37. He Drums Lubolo in Textural Rhythms 120 Figure 38. The Walkway Near Doris' Kitchen Door 122 Figure 39. Doris' Collards and Other Plants 123 Figure 40. Doris in her Living Room 124 Figure 41. Doris and her Quilt with a View of the Courtyard in the Background 125 Figure 42. Doris with Quilting Paraphernalia Around her 127 Figure 43. Food Cooking on the Stove 128 Figure 44. Fish to be Fried and Glazing Turnovers 129 Figure 45. Templates from the Quilting Conference 130 Figure 46. African Themed Fabric from the Quilting Conference 131 Figure 47. Doris Hand Piecing 132 Figure 48. Dishwashing Liquid Aprons 133 Figure 49. Doris' African Fabrics Quilt Top 134 Figure 50. Doris' Quilted Pillow 134 Figure 51. Doris Holding up one of her Large Quilts 135 viii ABSTRACT Studies have been done on contemporary non-traditional quilts in the larger quilting context in Alabama (Arnett et al., 2002; Callahan, 1987), Arizona (Hazard, 1993), Arkansas (Benberry, 2000), and Kentucky (Benberry, 1992). However, from my examination of the literature no intensive study had been done on contemporary, non- traditional African American quilts in Florida. This study examined the quilts and quilting processes of three African American contemporary non-traditional women quilters in Florida. Although there are African American male quilters my focus was on women quilt artists. For this study I defined traditional quilts as those quilts that utilized long-established patterns, designs and exacting construction techniques and that were usually used as bed coverings. Contemporary non-traditional quilts were made within the last twenty-five years for artistic purposes, did not largely consist of established patterns, and were without a planned functional use. The study explored the meaning of quilting to the quilters and the overall implications for art education. I began by exploring the general history of quilting and African American traditional quilting and ended with the more recent history of art quilts and African American art quilters. Participants were sought through a combination of online and mail-in surveys. The surveys or survey links were sent to Internet quilting groups, Florida quilting guilds, and quilt shops in an attempt to locate members of the African American quilting population in Florida. Of the quilters interested in participating in the study I selected three African American quilters based on their survey information that reflected the diversity in experience and quilting I sought. The quilters were from different areas of the state, represented different age ranges, and quilting techniques. Quilters were videotaped and photographed as I interviewed and observed them. The report takes narrative form (Eisner, 1998) and addresses themes that arose during the study as well as the research questions. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION I am interested in the development of contemporary non-traditional African American quilts. Since non-traditional quilts, which I define as quilts created solely for artistic purposes, are a recent development of the late 1960s to early 1970s (McMorris & Kile, 1986), I also examined the history of traditional quilts by African Americans as context for my interest in contemporary non-traditional quilts. For the purpose of this study I define traditional quilts as those quilts that utilize long-established patterns, designs and exacting construction techniques and that are usually designed for use as a bedcovering. Contemporary non-traditional quilts are those quilts made within the last twenty-five years for artistic purposes not largely consisting of established patterns and without a planned functional use. Additionally, some African American quilts, both traditional and contemporary, incorporate design elements and techniques from West African textiles so I will explore this as appropriate. Historically speaking, I am interested in the period from the late 1970s to the present. The late 1970s to early 1980s saw the emergence and celebration of the art quilt and in particular, of the works of Faith Ringgold whose work has been shown at the Quilt National exhibition. Quilt National, a biennial juried exhibition of art quilts, began in 1979 (McMorris & Kile, 1986). Ringgold, a painter, soon became the most prominent and recognizable contemporary African American quilt artist. In 1980, Ringgold created her initial quilt, Echoes of Harlem, in collaboration with her mother, fashion designer Willi Posey (Cameron, D., Powell, R. J., Wallace, M., Hill, P., Gouma-Peterson, T., & Roth, M, 1998; Ringgold, 1995). It was her work that first stimulated my interest in contemporary African American quilts. I became interested in quilting approximately 13 years ago influenced by my lifelong interest in sewing and art. Initially, I experimented by creating a small quilted wall hanging and a tote bag using traditional pieced patterns. The next wall hanging I made was composed of cut out and applied images, a technique known as appliqué, that I attached by sewing machine and hand