Becomes a Bird

2019, 26.5”L x 16.5”W, hand-dyed cotton, silk and linen fabric, machine-quilted.

This is another of the Birds Are My People series, but with more of a fantasy idea. I often think about what it would be like to become a bird. I like how black culture has this idea embedded in the story “The people could fly” and the gospel song “I’ll fly away.” Much of my work now is about my history/relationship and affinity for birds, especially the raptors. I like that the woman has bird legs as well as wings.

The woman’s head, torso and wings are silk screened from my drawing, and then appliqued on the background. The featherlike shapes in blue are printed using ‘dye magnet,' a chemical that creates two tones from a one color dye bath. I printed the chemical using bamboo shoots cut vertically. The green circles are from bamboo shoots cut horizontally and printed in the same dye magnet process.