Prepare to bow down to the god of Political Correctness.
There was an article in this morning’s New York Times about a quilter. The article was accompanied by a number of photos which showed sloppy sewing, bad quilting, the artist grabbed every doodad in her home and slapped it on the fabric then called all of this art.
No. This is not art. I think about the quilts made by Faith Ringgold that I’ve seen. Beautiful pieces that tell a story. Nothing extraneous. Nothing badly sewn. No horrid quilting. Ringgold’s quilts are art.
I made the mistake of saying the above publically and a shit storm ensued. Why? Because the artist who made the ugly quilts is black and criticism of work done by a black person is now labeled racism. It’s not. It’s fair comment. I’d think those quilts were badly done no matter who made them.
There’s an attorney in town who has never impressed me. I’ve been present when he clearly misstated the law in a particular instance. I’ve seen this attorney present evidence in such a way that I wondered if he knew what the evidence showed. I’ve been present for a hearing he did that any first-year law student would have done better. The local attorney made no effort to prepare for the hearing which left me scrambling to make up for his lack of preparedness. I can’t say any of that publically. The attorney is black and to mention his failings as an attorney is racism. It’s not. It’s justified criticism based on his actions.
Yes, there is racism in the US. There was also a civil rights movement in the 1960’s that tore down barriers, integrated schools, integrated neighborhoods, and made educational and occupational opportunities where none existed before. I was more than old enough to understand what was happening in the US during the 1960’s. I’ve seen the before and the after. The after, while imperfect, is a major improvement over the before.
In other news……. Although I live far enough away from the wildfires in New Mexico and Arizona that I’m in no danger from the flames, the particulates in the smoke which blow by are causing problems. I can’t go outside today because the air quality is bad enough to trigger an allergic reaction. I had the same problem on Sunday when my allergies were so irritated that I had to take 5 decongestants to be able to breathe. Today, I took an antihistamine. I’m breathing well. My nose is only trotting rather than running. My eyes hurt. Rather than blue, the sky is gray and has been for several days.
This was taken Monday morning. That’s not a cloudy sky; that’s a sky filled with smoke particulates.
Wednesday was a tough day for me. My sister died on June 24, 1997. I’ve had a difficult time on the anniversary nearly every year. To counter the sadness, I put on fancy clothes, my favorite jewelry and we went to Chili’s for lunch. New Mexico is only partially open so dining options are a bit limited. After lunch, we went to Starbucks for fancy coffee.
Quail photos have to be done through the sliding glass door. Any movement or noise, and the quail scatter. Every year, we look forward to seeing thumbs. Baby quail look like thumbs with feet. The thumbs are now nearly adults although still accompanied by adults when they visit the yard. There may be a second batch of thumbs this year.
Quail stopping off for a drink before going home. Ideally, this shot should have been taken at ground level. Realistically, it was take the shot standing up, or cause the quail to run if I got down on the floor.
I did venture out to photograph the sunset on days when my allergies were calm. About the only thing smoke particulates are good for is vivid sunsets.
I like how the landscape looks like a collection of different, solid colors. I may need to make a quilt from this photo.
I’ve been making jewelry again. I’ve taken some product photos, but I’m not happy with them. I’ll try again in a day or so.
I used focus merge to combine several photos into one. Each photo is focused on a different bead. The result is all of the beads being in focus.
I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com
My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com
My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman
Deb's Art 
Oh my — you are a brave soul, definitely stirring the pot! I see the truth in what you’re saying, though, insofar that it’s very easy for people to jump to conclusions and assume the worst about your motives when you say that you don’t care for the artistic style of a Black quilter right now. I think that the wild, improvisational crazy-quilt style of Rosie Lee Tompkins (in the New York Times article) as well as the similar African American quilting tradition epitomized by the Gee’s Bend quilters definitely has a place in museums, because of how heavily those quilts have inspired a lot of what is going on in the “modern art quilt” today. A lot of white quilters are inspired by those quilts and are doing improvisational piecing, collage quilts, political statement quilts, etc. that are heavily influenced by the work of these Black quilters who were making whatever they could out of whatever materials they could get their hands on at the time. However, I’m with you in that it’s not a style of quilting that I personally am interested in making. I’m much more in awe of precision piecing, intricately stitched appliqué and masterful quilting, whether it’s hand quilted or quilted by machine. It’s like how two art lovers could be in NYC and one of them prefers the more traditional, representational works of art at the Metropolitan Art Museum (ME!), and the other one is raving about the art they saw at the Museum of Modern Art — Campbell’s Soup labels painted by Andy Warhol, or seemingly random paint splatters by Jackson Pollack (NOT me!). Some of us are shaking our head and asking, is that really art or is it just a political statement, or even a kind of anti-art? And no one is bent out of shape when I say I am not a big fan of modern art, because we all appreciate different kinds of art, and that’s okay — as long as I’m criticizing white artists like Warhol and Pollack. But in the racially charged atmosphere of Summer 2020, when you’re criticizing a style of quilt making that comes out of Black culture, it’s like dancing in a mine field! I don’t know… I’d probably go to the Rosie Lee Tompkins exhibit if I was in town, because I’m a sucker for any kind of quilting, really, for anything made out of fabric. I’d try to appreciate her quilts on their own terms, within the context of what she’s trying to do, rather than comparing them to my own style or to the traditional quilts that rule my heart. There were a couple of things about her quilts that I liked and could relate to, from the NYT article. I liked that she would embroider Bible versus into her quilts from whatever her Bible study was at the time she was making it, or the birth dates of family members, etc., to personalize them and to connect them to what was going on in her life and what was on her heart at the time she was making them. I’m sorry that you were misunderstood and felt attacked when you expressed your opinions. Sending you a big hug!
LikeLike
Thank you.
LikeLike