Pecolia Warner (March 9, 1901 – March 1983) was an American quiltmaker.

Early life

Pecolia Leola Deborah Jackson was born in a log house near Bentonia, Mississippi, and raised in Yazoo City, the ninth of eleven children.[1] She learned to make quilts from her mother Katie (a trained teacher) and other older women in her community.[2] "It's a gift from God to be able to do this," she explained. "That's my gift, that's my talent. Making quilts, that's my calling."[3]

Career

Warner worked various jobs as a domestic servant in Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana before retiring home to Mississippi in 1968. She quilted in the evenings when she worked full-time.[4]

Warner used color with personal meanings attached: red, for example, meant anger or violence to Warner, and she considered it a color to use carefully.[5] Her compositions have been linked to West African art, and to the "improvisational aesthetic" of jazz.[6]

In 1977, director William R. Ferris featured Warner in the documentary film "Four Women Artists," produced by the Center for Southern Folklore, as one of the four Mississippi women in the title, along with writer Eudora Welty, painter Theora Hamblett, and embroiderer Ethel Wright Mohamed.[7] In 1983, she was honored with a Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award.[8]

Personal life and legacy

Warner was married five times, with Sam Warner as her last husband. Warner died in March 1983, age 82. Her quilts continue to be displayed in museums, usually in group shows about African-American folk art.[9][10] Her niece Sarah Mary Taylor also made quilts that were favored by art collectors.[11]

A song by Louisiana folksinger Kevin Gordon, titled "Pecolia's Star," is about Warner's quilts.[12] Poet Sandra McPherson included a poem named "Holy Woman: Pecolia Warner" in her collection, The God of Indeterminacy: Poems.[13]

References

  1. ^ Ferris, William R. (1983). Afro-American Folk Art and Crafts. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-61703-343-8.
  2. ^ Marion Barnwell, ed. A Place Called Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi 2010): 330. ISBN 0878059644
  3. ^ Mason, Marilynne S (16 December 1993). "Crafts Become Art in African-American Quilt-Making Exhibition: Show and book explore the tradition of beautifying what is useful, highlighting both continuity and improvisation". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  4. ^ Wahlman, Maude Southwell (2004). Wertkin, Gerard C. (ed.). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. Routledge. pp. 543–544. ISBN 978-1-135-95615-8.
  5. ^ Gehman, Geoff (27 March 1994). "African-American Quilts 'Whoop' With Color". The Morning Call. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  6. ^ Black, Patti Carr (1998). Art in Mississippi, 1720-1980. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-57806-084-9.
  7. ^ Hurst, Teri (9 November 1978). "Folk-South: Workshop on Southern life and art 'tells it like it is'". Daily News. Retrieved 22 November 2022 – via Google News Archive Search.
  8. ^ "WCA Honor Awards" (PDF). National Women's Caucus for Art Conference. February 1983. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
  9. ^ Cox, Diane (18 March 1984). "Quilts' History and Art on Display". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  10. ^ Bennett, Lennie (31 January 2005). "Patters of improvisation: Two exhibitions of vintage African-American quilts show how women created uncommon beauty from common scraps of fabric". St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
  11. ^ Russell, Charles (2001). Self-taught Art: The Culture and Aesthetics of American Vernacular Art. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-57806-380-2.
  12. ^ Ramsey, Jan (14 February 2012). "Kevin Gordon Goes for Glory". OffBeat Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  13. ^ McPherson, Sandra (1993). The God of Indeterminacy: Poems. University of Illinois Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-252-06271-1.
Categories