Gee’s Bend

I really struggled during the winter lockdown of 2020/21, I felt very isolated, the weather was cold and grey. To keep my spirits up I did online courses and during one of these I came across the amazing women of Gee’s Bend Alabama. This is/was a group of women descended from slaves who lived in a geographically isolated community without much communication with the rest of the world and no access to art. For centuries using skills passed from generation to generation they created the most beautiful abstract quilts using whatever materials they had to hand. Inspired by their wonderful works and feeling empathy with that feeling of isolation i sought to create a body of work using my methodologies but influenced by the geometric shapes of the Gee’s Bend Quilts. I was also lucky enough to go to an exhibition of their work in April once restrictions started to ease.