Sunday, November 1, 2009
Quilting, Not Wilting.
The Sharecropper's Masterpiece is just one of the many African American Quilts of Avis C. Robinson and Sandra McPherson currently on display in the Nelson Gallery at UC Davis.
This singular quilt can not by any means define the entire breadth of their works. The quilts were as varied in pattern and color as they were in expression and emotion.
The Sharecropper's Masterpiece seems to be a quilt of contradictions.
It is, by nature of its pattern, both frenzied and structured. Vertical lines meeting horizontal lines lead the eye to easily assemble the safe and sturdy grid that makes up this quilt. The grid is a very basic concept in design and easily allows the designer to create structure with variance.
Many quilts (throughout all cultures) depend on a grid to provide the basic template of design. This template, however reliable, is not foolproof. The grid can easily become predictable and thus static and yawn-inducing.
The Sharecropper's Masterpiece, however, does not fall victim to this trap.
Each "square" of the somewhat imagined grid is a design in and of itself. Thin trapezoidal stripes of alternating colors provide an unlimited supply of visual pleasure. The stripes vary from black, tan, red, pink, purple, white, yellow, and a few colors inbetween. These colors, although varying in value greatly, remain in what seems to be exactly half of the color wheel. This use of primarily analogous colors unifies the quilt throughout despite the jarring effect of the stripes.
The quilt presents to the viewer a very staccato rhythm because of the contrast, thinness, and general all-over pattern of the stripes. The beats are short and the quilt provokes a bouncy, almost hurried, emotion. We are reminded, however, that the design still remains a single piece through the analogous colors making the staccato rhythm easier to enjoy.
Through pattern and rhythm, the quilts of Robinson and McPherson create immense visual variety. Quilts, thus, remain a great reminder to designers the emotional power of these two aspects alone.
9:29 PM by jamie.