American Folk Art Museum
Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands
Through September 12, 2010
There is a welcoming statue of a full figured woman standing atop a ballot box on the third floor exhibit of Folk Art by Female Hands. The theme of this exhibit was inspired by the novel An Old Fashioned Girl by L. M. Alcott. In Chapter 13 of there is a scene where Fanny and Polly visit the studio of Becky and Bess. Becky with clay soaked hands is sculpting a statue of "the coming woman." Fanny describes the statue "it is only a beautiful woman, bigger, lovelier and more imposing than any woman I ever saw." The women discuss "what women should be?" "Give her a ballot box," suggested Kate King, the authoress. Becky agrees, " a needle, pen, palette, broom and a ballot box."
The exhibit introduces us to a portrait of Grandma Moses, who is credited with starting the canon of folk art according to the Senior curator Stacy C. Hollander. Grandma Moses did needlework before painting in oil and tempera.
Finishing the Quilt by Nan Phelps of Hamilton, Ohio, oil on canvas shows three generations of women seated and hand quilting.
Next to this piece hangs a silk quilt from the Museum of Folk Art collection entitled Stars and Pentagons. The patterns in this tautly stretched quilt are similar to Finishing the Quilt.
In the past centuries the homes of women displayed the practical skills of producing domestic textiles. These works combined practicality with ornamental creations. We now appreciate this beauty;' the cult of domesticity.'
Women were educated in the ornamental arts of needlework by stitching a "sampler." A sampler included the stitching of the letters of the alphabet, numbers and figures. These schools such as the Sanders and Beech School; Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut or the Ladies Academy in Dorchester, Massachusetts also taught the classics. Some to the pieces exhibited show needlework plus watercolor paintings on linen. Watercolor Studies by Mary Nettleson from the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
There is a section about how the women used there needlework skills to teach morals and religious mythology to their families. The large hand stitched quilt by Maria Cadman Hubbard in 1848 depicts pious quotes, aphorisms and proverbs. "If you can not be a golden pippin. Do not turn crab apple." The letters are inches tall.
The quilt artist signed her tribute to the Grover Cleveland presidential campaign J.F.R. During the 1880-90's her "stash" included ribbons associated with political
events in the Democratic Party. There are irregular patches of silks and other fabrics outlined with embroidery threads.
A demure crazy quilted robe hangs on a mannequin. It was worn by Emma Rebecca Cummins Blacklock Snively Crosier Pauling. She was not a 'waiting' woman of the Gold Rush Days. She won her third husband in a bar room brawl. She was the first female telegraph operator for the railroad.
Theorem Painting during the period of 1825-1840 used hollow cut stencils to produce still life watercolor paintings on velvet fabric. The math formulas provided the sharp delineation of each object.
Diamond in the Square Quilt by an unknown quilter of Lancaster, Pennsylvania is dated between 1910-1930. The large geometric patterns in single-color fabrics of saturated earth and jewel tones are typical of contemporary Amish quilts. This pattern is related to the tooled leather designs found on covers of the Ausbund, the early Anabaptist hymnal.
The closing of the exhibit features portrait paintings in watercolor, pencil and ink.
American Folk Art Museum is located at 45 West 53rd Street/Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 212.265.1040. The exhibit runs until September 12, 2010.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Homegrown Poetry
It has always been my suspicion that mom and dad had only one thing in common. Poetry. Mom owned one special book from her youth. She showed it to me all torn and tattered, loosing its binding. She had a mirth in her voice as she explained to me that this was her twelveth grade English text book. In 1928-1929 LeMoyne-Owen College was also a high school. When she graduated she immediately was hired teaching in the primary grades. She was eighteen years old. Mom returned to college when I was in my primary grades.
The title of this book is One hundred and one Famous Poems published by R. S. Cook, the Cable Company 1926. The pages are yellow and patched with scotch tape. There are notes scribbled from her studies. And in addition there were names of her classmates written next to the poet's pictures. A joke, she said as she laughed her memories.
Occasionally on Saturday nights I would hear dad reading aloud from his bedroom. He was reading from this book. Stumbling then repeating to practice a line. He read poems as performance at his church.
The best thing I liked about this collection of classic poems is that there was a first line index in the back. Mom had the book rebound as a gift to me in 1991.
The total memory of a poem comes in two parts------
A clear recitation of the first few words:
O Captain. My Captain, our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won.
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree . . .
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler . . .
More first few words:
One road leads to London,
One road leads to Wales,
My road leads me seawards
To the white dipping sails.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary . . .
The smell of the sea in my nostrils,
The sound of the sea in mine ears;
The touch of the spray on my burning face,
Like the mist of reluctant tears.
The owl and Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful Pea green boat
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The second part of the memory of a poem is a recollection of a feeling. The words are right on the tip of your tongue. You know what the poem was about, but all you have is the feeling that your mind traveled. You long to go there again.
Through the years I have traveled to and fro with these poems. Others I have added when first I heard the expression "spinning a yarn," from a yachtsman. This sailboat captain had so, so many tales to tell of his pleasure boat sailing career. In order to compete I searched for nautical poems to recite onboard. It was a solution that has continued to our recent cruise out of Rockland, Maine. We anchored in cozy coves and windless ports on up the coast to Belfast, Maine last summer. After dinner we read to each other and laughed.
The title of this book is One hundred and one Famous Poems published by R. S. Cook, the Cable Company 1926. The pages are yellow and patched with scotch tape. There are notes scribbled from her studies. And in addition there were names of her classmates written next to the poet's pictures. A joke, she said as she laughed her memories.
Occasionally on Saturday nights I would hear dad reading aloud from his bedroom. He was reading from this book. Stumbling then repeating to practice a line. He read poems as performance at his church.
The best thing I liked about this collection of classic poems is that there was a first line index in the back. Mom had the book rebound as a gift to me in 1991.
The total memory of a poem comes in two parts------
A clear recitation of the first few words:
O Captain. My Captain, our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won.
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree . . .
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler . . .
More first few words:
One road leads to London,
One road leads to Wales,
My road leads me seawards
To the white dipping sails.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary . . .
The smell of the sea in my nostrils,
The sound of the sea in mine ears;
The touch of the spray on my burning face,
Like the mist of reluctant tears.
The owl and Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful Pea green boat
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The second part of the memory of a poem is a recollection of a feeling. The words are right on the tip of your tongue. You know what the poem was about, but all you have is the feeling that your mind traveled. You long to go there again.
Through the years I have traveled to and fro with these poems. Others I have added when first I heard the expression "spinning a yarn," from a yachtsman. This sailboat captain had so, so many tales to tell of his pleasure boat sailing career. In order to compete I searched for nautical poems to recite onboard. It was a solution that has continued to our recent cruise out of Rockland, Maine. We anchored in cozy coves and windless ports on up the coast to Belfast, Maine last summer. After dinner we read to each other and laughed.
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