Cuesta Benberry - The Anyone Can Fly Foundation, Inc.

CUESTA: That’s true. That’s why I think that it’s really important, not just for African-Americans, but for quilters in general, to keep making quilts. Because, like you say, ifthey stop making them then what have you got to write about? Nothing.Figure 7: Log Cabin Quilt, Medallion Variation (also called Pig Pen), ca.1955. By Mary Allen Smith Williams. Wool flannel, cotton, pieced. 82 x73 inches. Purchase. Collection of Old State House Museum 95.01.7.http://www.oldstatehouse.com/piece%2Dof%2Dmy%2Dsoul/quilting%2Dfamilies/default.asp?fn=The+Allen+Sisters+%26+Descendants&fid=1&id=9&qid=2&qn=Mary+Allen+Smith+WilliamsFAITH: And make them in the freest possible way. Do it their way. Because withoutthat there’s nothing to qualify which way is the best way. If they haven’t actually doneit.Now, can we define, how and when African-American quilters have inspired the modernart movement in America? There’s that question. It’s a hot ticket. Because, I don’tthink it’s ever been discussed. It hasn’t been discussed because history is powerful.And as we found out in the 60s, to keep a person’s history covered is to cover up theirdream. And this is America where we value freedom. And we’re constantly strugglingto make sure that we have it.And here we find that here we have generations of women, it’s mostly women, who havecreated a two-dimensional art history that I thought we didn’t have. I would have said,when I was a college student, I want to be a painter. I went to college to be a painter.But I had no history as a painter. If I had wanted to be a sculptor, no problem. Everyoneknows that African sculpture unfolded the Modern Art Movement. In the work ofPicasso, they created cubism by looking at these curious sculptures, African sculpture.So, everywhere in the world people know about African sculpture. It is widely collectedand acclaimed as a beacon of light in the history of sculpture of the world. O.K.? Ittakes its place.But I would have said, as far as easel painting is concerned, which is what I want to do,we have no tradition in that. I would have said that. And I’m sure that most paintingstudents today would say it, too. The easel painting that we use as a classic form isEuropean derived, invented by Europeans. We are coming into that now. We do nothave typically a two-dimensional free form of painting as our history. I knew aboutquilts. Yes. But I didn’t think of them in the way that I’m thinking of them now.Because now I would say, quilt making is our two-dimensional form. It’s two-dimensionaland it’s also three-dimensional. But it’s basically two-dimensional. But it is. It is theclassic form of African-American two-dimensional art and it was begun by women.Figure 8: Jesus Bearing the Cross 2003. © Michael A. Cumming. 84 x84 inches. Collection of the Artist.http://www.michaelcummings.com/other.htmlCUESTA: Right. Right.page 10