Between Make-Believe and Memory
Today I am doing some looking back. Back into make-believe. Back into memory.
As I recall being a young girl, I remember how powerful the world of make-believe was for me. I frequently played alone, with paper dolls, Barbies and drawing pads to create new universes and new stories.
“Between Make-Believe and Memory” is a quilt I completed this year that walks into this memory world. I am so pleased that it was recently accepted into the SAQA traveling exhibit, “Connections,” which will premiere at the International Quilt Festival, Houston 2021 and travel for about two years.
The beginning of this work was my discovery of the photo of the rowhouses. (© 2014 Alana Semuels, as originally published in The Atlantic, used with permission.) It’s very powerful. These row houses are in downtown Baltimore, the city where I grew up. My family also lived in a row house neighborhood. It was not the same as this one; this neighborhood is older and has clearly fallen on hard times. Still, the image evoked a pang of recognition. Bricks. Concrete sidewalks. Cracks. It spoke to me at once as a way into the exploration of traveling back to childhood stories.
I was interested in using the sidewalk cracks as a way to bridge the divide between the two realities. I monotype printed cotton muslin with a very drab grey-brown color to match the sidewalks in the photo. There is a clear vertical line of delineation through the piece, but it is crossed over by the sidewalk texture and cracks.
I was pleased with the way the sidewalk texture interacts with the little girl’s shadow. Lightly painting the shadow shape allowed the texture I had created with machine stitching to show through. They are now actually a part of the little girl.
What is the meaning of the section with gold and green and tree forms?
It is intentionally undefined. The lines suggest trees, but they are not a literal forest. This is the world of make-believe.
Beneath the row houses, the roots were printed with a screen of linear tree-like lines that mirrors the make-believe section. The underground life of the houses. The inhabitants of the houses. What’s remaining now that they are gone.
The surface of this work is very much like a painting, although it is constructed as a layered and stitched quilt. The house photograph was transferred to muslin manually with acrylic medium. It is stiff and created a good surface for the acrylic paint touch-ups I did on the surface.
I am so grateful for the opportunities provided by SAQA to its artists to stretch by creating works for call-to-entries. I like thinking of this girl traveling to a number of venues, hoping she will speak to those who see the exhibit.
When you enter a juried exhibit, you have to submit an artist statement. Here’s what I said about this quilt:
“I can imagine the insistent pull within a migrating animal to return to its place of origin. I have felt similar longings. Having lived my early childhood in a row house section of Baltimore, I experienced a visceral response to this image of abandoned row houses in a downtown Baltimore neighborhood. Make-believe (my imaginings as a child) and Memory (the real events) live side-by-side, overlap, rearrange and conflate, creating a powerful emotional connection.”
I have explored the journey of a young girl in many ways in my artmaking. If you are interested in seeing more, please visit the Journeys and Stories gallery on my website, HERE.
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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