Reading with Cranes

2019, 60”L x 43.5”W, hand-dyed,printed, silk screened and stone litho cotton and silk fabric, machine-quilted, hand-embellished.

This is the first of the Birds Are My People series. It was a commission for Seminole State College’s Read to Succeed program. I did several art making workshops with this program. The director, Hatem Akil, cared so much for the students, making sure they experienced reading as a necessity and a pleasure. He developed a culture of reading on campus that I hope can be seen in this art.

The Sanford campus of Seminole State is home to several pairs of sandhill cranes, including one with a damaged leg. I put the cranes under the window of a woman reading “The Biography of Harriet Tubman.” Her book holds a Read to Succeed bookmark. If you go to the library at the Sanford/Lake Mary campus of Seminole State you can see the quilt. My maternal grandmother was a librarian, so I am very happy to have my art there.

Making this quilt taught me that perfect rendition of an image is not necessary. The cranes are recognizable as sandhill cranes even though they are not in exact colors. The walls resemble the library walls but are not an exact replica. I love the face by the eye of the right side crane. The figure looks to be saying, “I don’t like birds.” It makes me laugh every time I see it.