The Mask in Hand

2007, 60”L x 38”W, hand-dyed cotton, silk and linen fabric, machine-quilted, hand-embellished.

This is a special quilt I made in 2007. I made Mask to show my thinking about how to be the black person I am instead of trying to be what other people wanted or expected of me. This internal struggle is constant and historic. I think of Phyllis Wheatley and her struggle to 'prove,' as a black woman, that she wrote her own poetry. Every time (and it has been many) someone asks me if I really made the work in the exhibit or art show I think of Ms. Wheatley and every other black artist dealing with questions of authenticity.

The Mask in Hand also came out of work I did at a high school in Orlando. I received a grant to teach art once a week at the school, partnered with the painting instructor. This work was very hard, as the school had (and has) limited resources, a diverse and poor population and only a few teachers of color. The art teacher I worked with told me her students hated art and that she was tired of fighting with them.

I started from the notion that the students had something to say and a culture of their own to work from. Slowly, with many stumblings and project fails, I began to understand how art is a path to self expression and self agency. Bringing African American literature, art and music into the art classroom calmed and centered everyone. I encouraged students to bring in their cultures into their work. They could decide what they wanted the world to know about them. Paul Dunbar's poem and so many others helped to express this idea and give us a framework, we were not alone and we were not crazy to want what we wanted.

So many great and difficult discussions happened in that classroom. It was exhausting, frustrating and exhilarating all at the same time. One project in the state curriculum was to make a paper mache Grecian Urn. The art teacher made sure everyone had the requisite brown, black and white paints, as well as printouts of Urns from the British Museum to copy. I decided instead to add all colors and to say "put whatever story you want on your urn." The teacher was sure we would get gang symbols, porn and drug paraphernalia. I had to assure her I would take the blame for any bad outcome.

The results were epic accounts of family and individual stories - from boats of Haitians crossing to Florida, migrant workers picking tomatoes and the journey of an African American family - some leaving Florida in the 20's to go north and some staying behind. They were lovely, sad and thought provoking. Everyone took their piece home instead of leaving it to be displayed at school.

What I learned again was to trust the artist. This is so counterintuitive to 'normal' school work that I have to relearn it and reteach it over and over. Now that I have been away from the classroom for the past year - I can look at this work with some relief, some nostalgia and some rededication and focus on new art creation. Understanding that I will probably never be in a classroom again means I must reevaluate what I do. Not a bad thing, just have to face and reshape my future.

The mask, hands and face are fabric and batting quilted on timtec interfacing, a stiff polyester fabric that can be steamed and molded into a particular shape. The light gold/browns were dyed with rust. The hardest part of making this piece was leaving the shirt silk white.