Cuesta Benberry - The Anyone Can Fly Foundation, Inc.

Figure 15: Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima? 1983. © Faith Ringgold.Acrylic on canvas, dyed, painted and pieced fabric. 90 x 80 inches.Private Collection http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/d34.htmFAITH: Because that looks like a painting. But Carolyn showed me how it’s done.Because she has quilts that look like paintings. But they’re not paintings. They are alsopieced, but she uses different fabrics that have a painterly quality for what she wants todo. It’s brilliant. I have to show you how to do it. It just blew me away. I couldn’tbelieve it. Fabulous. Grace I have to show you, too.Figure 16: All That Jazz 2000. © Carolyn Mazloomi. Cotton, silk, beads,buttons, machine appliqué, hand and machine quilted. 78 x 70 inches.Private Collection.CUESTA: Now this is a wonderful quilt.BARBARA: Those are squares?CUESTA: Yes. This has a special design. They’re all so many different scraps you canhardly tell it. But it was really a design quilt. I just love this quilt. I really wanted it.FAITH: You wanted what?CUESTA: I wanted this quilt …FAITH: For yourself?CUESTA: It’s so stark. It just catches you.FAITH: What year was that done?CUESTA: Well now, she made three and this was the last one. I think it was around1980. The first one was made about 1960.BARBARA: Pieced and appliquéd?CUESTA: She made three of these quilts. I think one is somewhere there in Georgia.FAITH: It seems to me like I’ve seen that quilt.CUESTA: One was in a private family.GRACE: Did she make them all the same?CUESTA: They’re all the same. Now I’ve got this quilt. Now that’s the freedom quiltingbee. The predecessor of the Gee’s Bend. And they call that Joseph’s coat of manycolors.page 21