thelmasmith

One of the things seen at the Tougaloo Artists’ Colony.

At least I do. I was questioned as to why I was backed up to the water fountain in the hallway with my camera. I said, “Look down the hall.” “Duh? Oh, well. I thought what I saw was beautiful in a strangely surreal, industrial, functional sort of way.

The hallway was really two different hallways. One with the lights and backlighting gave one image.

The image taken with no ceiling lights on is completely different. I brought the levels up in Photoshop to let you see the detail.

I suspect the lighting at the far end of the hall is a single ceiling fixture. We were working in a huge room in a daylight basement that is the print workroom during the school year.

Here is a photo of my colleague, Tanya Watanabe. Although she lives in Japan she is one of those citizens of the world.

When I come back from a trip I empty the suitcases first. I put the art supplies and the dirty laundry in their place. That’s after sleeping for about twenty hours.

Today was my day for opening the mail from the last ten days. I paid the bills and shredded all the sucker bait mail including all the blank checks with my name on them. Then I got to the large, nicely wrapped package that I knew was from Tanya. I had saved it and savored it as the reward for getting all the boring work done.

I am totally blown away ! ! ! Look at the treasure trove that came out of that small box.

I folded each in half and pinned them up over other things on the pinning wall. The two shorter ones may be - - - oh, rats, I cannot find the John Marshall book on Kimono that gives the proper names. The orange has a lovely lining.

And look at the hand painting on the sleeve. The back has a much larger hand painted mountain scene. The front has a similar painting on each side of the front.

The lavender kimono in the back of the first picture is a lovely brocade. This floral pattern is either hand painted or print in an overall design. Although it has relatively short sleeves it is a much more formal kimono as the long length indicates it is designed to be worn with an obi that will take up some of the length.

This last detail is from the middle kimono. The color in the photo does not do it justice; it is a rich café au lait with delicate, restrained hand painted motifs.

Tanya, I do not know how to thank you enough. These kimono are magnificent. There is no way I can cut them to use in textile art; they are much too gorgeous. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Pictured above are Sonji Hunt and Rhonda Blasingame. Do go to Sonji Says for a much more complete description of the class. Rhonda, please contact me; I’m unable to find how to email you.

Among the things I firmly believe is the idea that textile art is not well served by being kept to itself. We use the words art quilt and wonder why no other artists are interested in our work.

I went to the Tougaloo Art Colony in Jackson, Mississippi, last week because the words said art colony. I have never spent a week so joyously.

Ceramicists, painters, enamelers, textile workers, all noted and acclaimed instructors, most who were professors at other institutions came together for a week of very intense study. Very intense study was combined with very intense discussions, meals, trips out here and there.

Adding to the mix of intelligent conversation and hard work was the multi cultural aspect of Tougaloo. Above are Debbie, Sonji half hidden, and Annie from Chicago. Sonji will have much better pictures and more details.

I think this was about the point when we had all painted yards and yards of fabric and were beginning the next step in Sonji’s process.

It was quite interesting; each of us immediately had a recognizable painting style. We were creating layer after layer of painted fabric. Each layer from the big stack related to the painting before it.

Rosalind, our teaching assistant, is backed by Rhonda’s rust dyed works just behind Rosalind and on the left. The bright multi colors to the right are all Sonji’s brought to give us some idea of what and how the process goes along.

Do not be fooled by Rosalind’s seemingly plain pink fabric; when done it was a gorgeous blue fabric with pink underlays.

I’ll be more on my game tomorrow and the next few days. In the last eight weeks I have made fourteen separate flights. The airlines are fourteen for fourteen. Every flight was either delayed, double booked, canceled, delayed for mechanical problems, delayed for lack of crew, or delayed by weather. In spite of the cost of fuel I think next time I will drive.

That means I plan to go back to Tougaloo next Art Colony. It will be an entirely different group of professors. I have no idea what I will sign up for. I do know that I wanted to get my hands in to every medium that was taught next week. I’m hoping they will extend the Art Colony beyond one week

I spent an afternoon the other day doing a lot of research on the Gees Bend women and quilts. Many of my references (below) require membership in the QuiltArt list. Some of the messages I wrote I will reprint here.

“October 6, 2002, please pick up or check the library for the November issue of Conde Nast’s House and Garden. Page 98 is titled Stitches in Time by Barbar Pollack. Shown in four color are Annie Mae Young an her indigo quilt. Also shown is a quilt by Mary Lee Bendolph. A Rachel Carey George quilt, 1938, that is the most subtle and lovely of them all. Netti Young’s Milky Way quilt, and the late Lillie Mae Pettway’s 6′x5′ quilt made in 1965. And last, but certainly not least, Loretta Pettway’s quilt made in 1960.”

My statement, seriously edited to placate the demographics of the QuiltArt list says in part, “Those purchases - - - gave the curators a wealth of opportunity - - - That body of work is unlikely to be reproduced by women in their seventies and eighties so the preservation is a mixed blessing.”

Gwen Magee countered, ” - - - gave the curators “a wealth of opportunity” to take incredibly unfair advantage of extremely poor people who had no idea that they were being “ripped off” and of what their work was worth.”

Naturally, the nature of the QuiltArt list created great uproar. Gwen’s integrity and credentials were despicably questioned. All I could do was give this response, “I want to commend her (Gwen) for the courage I lacked. I deleted a lot of sentences about my own feelings about the article I read.

My strongest emotions were those of anger, shame, and theft;”

Now, with the lawsuits beginning, those emotions of anger, shame, and theft are here again. They are tempered with hope. My wishes are to see the theft of copyright from these women for avarice and monetary gain righted. I certainly hope the attorneys for the women of Gees Bend see too it that punitive damages are requested in very high numbers.

Kyra Hicks blog, Black Threads, clearly examines the current situation. Please, go, read, scroll down, absorb all the unsavory details. Kyra writes of today’s news with dependable accuracy.

If you wish further information I’m adding a long list of hotlinks. Those from his.com are QuiltArt proprietals; you must be a member to access those hotlinks in their archives.
Gee’s Bend Quilters Claim Big Rip-Off
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181035097167800.xml&coll=3

Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/2fho5j

And would you believe, Matt Arnett now has a blog (only one posting):
http://tinwood.blogspot.com/2007/06/attorneys-for-arnett-family-respond-to.html

July 3, 2007, addition:  Matt Arnett now has two postings to his blog (the most recent one is about their press conference the other day. http://tinwood.blogspot.com/

This is an interesting book review:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4081/is_200603/ai_n17184448

> Gee’s Bend: A Fight for Rights - Ben Raines - June 15, 2007
> http://bama.live.advance.net/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181899233121920.xml&coll=3&thispage=1
>
> Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/39f3kx

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1183022217278890.xml&coll=3&thispage=1#continue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdpOkLdtM50

<http://bama.live.advance.net/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1181899233121920.xml&coll=3&thispage=1>

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/home/orl-homesquiltart092902sep29,0,5340885.story?coll=orl-shoppinghg-headlinesforthe

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/news/stories/2007/06/17/geesbend0617a.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-December/047382.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043681.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043724.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043776.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043836.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043700.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043702.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043687.html

http://lists103.his.com/mailman/private/quiltart/2002-October/043710.html

As a postscript to this long post, consider the differences between using an image under the fair use clause of the United States Copyright Laws for the purpose of informing and educating the public and the fact that a judge and a court will be examining the use of the copyrighted images of the works of the women of Gees Bend for manufacturing items for the profit of others.