For Alabama Sampler, artists of all media were invited to submit “quilts” inspired by their experience growing up, living in, or spending significant time in Alabama. This exhibition was open to artist applicants who were born in Alabama, current or former residents of Alabama, or anyone who considers time spent in Alabama to have had a significant impact on them.

While the call for artists specifies “quilts,” the term “quilt” here did not have to be taken literally. This means a “quilt” for an artist could’ve been a painting that represents patchwork, or a ceramic vessel representing the warmth and comfort a quilt might bring, or however one felt their media of choice intersects with the aesthetics or principals of quilt-making. My goal is for this show, like a quilt sampler, to showcase the diverse hands of Alabama artists, and the myriad of experiences possible in a place that is so often unfairly reduced.

Below, view all works featured in Alabama Sampler. If interested in purchasing a work, please email me at aaronsandershead@gmail.com. Click images to see them in a larger format.

Roots
Sarah Adkins-Jablonsky
Digital Illustration, Leaf, Tech Pen
10 x 10 in. Framed

“I plucked a leaf from outside my partner’s Southside apartment while the heat told me to go back inside. I did not plan the pluck, it happened as quickly as a mosquito bite. And I did not grow up in Alabama, but in that moment I was her child. Using a pen in my pocket (and I cannot remember where that pen is now) I engraved that leaf with a trembling I imagined Samson felt. I told that leaf something I had not told anyone else before. Home is not where you are potted or plucked, home is where you are watered.”

Cathedral Quilt Puzzle Piece
Neel Alexander
Corrugated plastic board, aerosol spray paint
14 x 23 in.

“A variant of the cathedral quilt pattern is placed on the puzzle piece in order to convey the ritual and communal aspect that quilt making has had within many family traditions.”

Sky Above, Earth Below 
Doug Baulos and Sheri Schumacher

endemic (indigo and rust) dyed upcycled linen and cotton cloth, machine and hand sewing, cotton thread, piecing and appliqué, carpenter ruler 
26 x 26 in. 

Doug Baulos and Sheri Schumacher find common ground in a deep sense of intimacy with cloth, reverence for the environment, craft, recycling processes, mending and sewing as a form of meditation. Collaboration for this work referenced the sky above and earth below, stars or holes in a metal roof revealing the floor of heaven and geometries of nature. 

Lítost
Sarah Dittmann
Multiple fabrics, batting, thread, cross stitch, embroidery, screen print, paper, litho crayon, and watercolor.
71 x 61 1/2 in.

“Uprooting from my family home after college inspired personal reflection about what is important in life. And to me that is carried memories. Using images from my family’s history allows me to explore narrative conventions in visual art. Crystals are the personal vehicle I use to embody memories and represent different facets of familial history; they alter the memories portrayed, just as memories distort with the passage of time.
Applying inspiration from my family’s Czech folk art traditions offers me a way to harness my own nostalgic feelings for experiences with people I no longer have as permanent fixtures in my life. I incorporate embroidery and other needlework as a way of recognizing my mom and other important women in my family that have practiced sewing arts for generations. The process of researching years of familial memorabilia helps me to understand the chain of traditions of recording and passing down. It is through this I have found the unexpected transference of a nostalgia for home.”

At the Circus
Nancy Goodman
Quilt
71 x 71 in.

"Living in Alabama, I've been aware of the Gee's Bend quilters since they first came to prominence about 20 years ago. Their quilts have been an inspiration to me. I've studied them pretty carefully and learned a lot about free hand piecing with no patterns. Some of that is evident in this quilt.” - Nancy Goodman

Black & Blue
Kimberly Hart
Fiber and thread
23 x 30 in.

“Memories make us who we are and build to create the present.  The past shapes the present and the present informs the past.  From our memories, we construct entire worlds within a few inches of space before us and within us.  In this quilt, I explore memory, space, and time; and my ambivalent feeling of living in Alabama.

I am a mixed media artist working in various media and flowing between two-dimensional work of collage, print-making, painting, fiber.” - Kimberly Hart

Lulu’s Stitching Circle
Anne Franklin Lamar
clay

Anne Franklin Lamar was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, where she first began working with clay. As a teenager and throughout her college years, she work in a mission-focused pottery studio at First Presbyterian Church, Greenville, MS and later went on to spend many summers during graduate school teaching pottery at Sally Jones Pottery in Montreat, NC. Anne Franklin has continued sharing her passion for clay and her belief in the healing art of creating through her active membership in The Kentuck Red Dog Potters, a cooperative studio housed on the Kentuck Art Center campus in Northport, AL and her own practice of throwing, carving, and handling each piece with intention and care. Much of her current work is inspired by the rich quilting and textile tradition passed down from her mother and through many generations of her family with stitching and patterns familiar to the quilting world reflected throughout her clay work. She also draws inspiration from her work teaching interdisciplinary courses in literature and women’s studies at the University of Alabama Honors College, mixing words and affirmations into her carving and design. Anne Franklin strives to create functional and affordable pottery that will bring joy to everyday life.

We Have The Freedom To Rise Above Our Dark Past
Leanna Leithauser-Lesley
Needlepointed portrait, hand-stitched onto a hand-embroidered crazy quilt, hung by a rod
48 X 43 in.
”The unceasing bottom left, top right rhythm brings order to my brain. I identify with people who have stitched through the births and deaths of their lives and feel connected to a larger purpose through my work. My subjects are paradoxical to the quiet, methodical way of stitching as they are plucky, fearless, enduring individuals who have lived life out loud. My freehand process of needlepointing portraits facilitates communion with these brilliant citizens. So much is conveyed through the lyrics of a song, the cadence of a poem, the thickness of the paint and the expression in the eyes. My artistic practice celebrates their achievements.” - Leanna

Gathered and Scattered
Loretta Lynn
Fiber/Textiles. Embroidery
32 x 21in.

Loretta is a self taught fiber artist who originally is from New York but has lived in Alabama since 2009. Trained as a Creative Arts Therapist, specifically, a Dance Therapist, she follows a process, movement, or idea and sees where it takes her. As this piece unfolded, she saw how both the running stitch served as both a boundary, keeping areas compartmentalized, yet also as a road, serving as a path of connection from one area to another. The tension and relationship of opposites has been an ongoing theme living in Alabama. In Laban Movement Analysis training, we learned that "all movement is an eternal change between binding and loosening..." which came to mind as she reflected on the end result. thought about what to title this piece.

Sheddings
Kimberly McWhorter
Cast abaca
Variable dimensions. Larger whole is made up of 18 small figures and can be organized in many ways depending on the space.

“The multiple and the rituals that accompany making ~ collecting (multiples) play an important role in my work for it is in the repetition and accumulation that brings for narrative transformation. Hand Me Down, transforms from the overlooked and discarded object into an uncanny collection revealing fragments of our human experience. Sheddings began as material exploration and soon took on a life of its own. The ghostly figures represent the immaterial and often intangible consciousness or spirit that manifests from inside our physical bodily form of existence.”

Layers of Self and the Obscurity of Memory
Kole Nichols
mixed media
36 x 28 inches

Transience
Kole Nichols
mixed media
42 x 15 in.

Kole Nichols is a multi-disciplinary artist from Florence Alabama, his practice has primarily consisted of the exploration of the liminal space between feelings of strength and fragility. The works created often reflect themes of encapsulating adoption, self-identity, memory, and fear. Employing the use of transparent mediums like tar gel, rice paper, emulsions, and resins, his work bridges traditional forms of printmaking, drawing and collage. His work typically combines the use of ephemera, paper, thread, and fragments of made and found images that are re-contextualized and combined to create metaphoric narratives. These materials are utilized in effort to pair both graphic and abstract situations mapped from observations of repetition within his life.

The Alabama Paradox
Tracie Noles-Ross
Mixed Media (clothing, quilt tops, glass, fiber)
32 x 14 in.
“Am I where I am from? Am I my memories? Am I what I rail against? Am I what I love? Am I the cells in this aging body? Am I the red clay under my feet?” Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I believe I am. Making a quilt seemed the perfect project for exploring these questions. Pieced together from all aspects of my life, I have made a story quilt and I am calling it The Alabama Paradox. I have an ongoing fascination with Plutarch’s thought experiment known as the Theseus Paradox. We humans seem to hold tight to this notion that even as our bodies age and change dramatically in a lifetime, we are the same person from cradle to grave. We know that none of the original cells we were born with are part of us at our death, but we still feel like the same person throughout our lives. We all forget a lot of what we have learned on our individual journeys (Alzheimers and dementia take away even more than the normal passage of time) but we and those around us see us as the same person--even if we have forgotten who we thought we were. How can that be? This suggests that perhaps we are more than our bodies. Do our minds, our ideas and memories, other’s perceptions of us determine our identities?

How do memory and identity and our connection to place and other people determine who we are in life? Since becoming a mother, attempting to raise my children in this complicated region, I have become interested in the ways that our relationship to family, history, the customs of a region, as well as the land itself defines us. We know that stories and the culture of a place can emotionally and spiritually shape us. I have spent a large part of my adult life contemplating familial and communal identities, social norms and pressures, trauma and transformation --and individual choice and how they have all shaped me as an individual and how, handed down, they are shaping my children. Identity, agency, and autonomy are complicated topics to ponder. What defines us? What makes us who we are? It’s not always easy to know for sure and it certainly not always easy to be from Alabama, as my values are often out of synch with this conservative place--but I am certainly a product of Alabama, for better or worse, and it has brought me as much joy as it has pain throughout my life. It’s a rich, beautiful and complicated place.”

All in a Days Work pt. 2
Amber Quinn
Satin Inkjet Print
20x30 in.

Fleeting pt. 2
Satin Inkjet Print
30 x 20 in. print

“These images are from my MA Thesis Exhibition, "Fragmented and Forgetten" that is a body of work developed out of my experiences as a Black woman who lives with the slave history of America. I am interested in the ways in which this fragment and incomplete history have been forced upon me and, as well as how the past and present are intertwined. By focusing on the female slave’s perspective and narrative, my images tackle the conversation about the effects of survivor's guilt while confronting a history I did not experience or witness. This creative discovery through self-portraiture also helped me to better understand the hidden transcripts of the enslaved woman’s experience that were often silenced. I utilize self-portraiture to have a clearer understanding into the reality of an enslaved woman’s experience, the facade she had to maintain, and how this idea of avoidance, loss, and the separation of family and community is still an issue in the present. By combining staged photographs and vernacular from family photo albums, I began to observe and understand how images inform the creation of my identity and how generational trauma, that I believe is stemmed from slavery, has shaped Black women today. This work intends to bring attention to the relationship between oppression and suppression by conveying notions of power dynamics, identity, and Black womanhood.”

Snowberry Clearwing Moth 
Michelle Reynolds
cotton fabric remnants, cotton string/ Techniques: machine-sewn applique, hand-stitched string embroidery
54 x 34 in.

“Creating ecology-inspired art from recycled fabrics, and telling stories of Alabama’s biodiversity through my quilts, I strive to weave together lessons in sustainability and appreciation for the natural world. 

Alabama the Beautiful — from mountains to the plains, rivers to the gulf, from forests to grasslands — the state is ecologically rich but conservation poor. Inspired by the boundless biological diversity, I like to interpret ecological tales through textile art as an antidote to cure plant blindness and environmental disregard. I want to mend the wounds, nurture a connection to the natural world, and foster a conservation ethic. 

The interrelationships between plants and insects in my story quilts urge the viewer to take notice and take care of the habitat in which we all live and depend on for survival. 

The snowberry clearwing quilt, machine sewn and hand stitched, is pieced, patched, and sutured with large cross stitches and heavy string to symbolize interconnections between the moth and its native coral honeysuckle host plant. For the life cycle quilt, I wanted the moth to stand out against the backgrounds of neutral tones. I chose varying shades for the host plant and caterpillar, and gold and brown threads for zigzag and straight-stitched accents and outlines. 

The assemblage of fabric remnants and threads helps tell a cautionary tale. Even though this special plant-pollinator and host-plant relationship has been forged over a long period of time, the process of co-evolution is ongoing. Fragmented forests, pesticides, urban sprawl, and the ever changing environment mean unpredictable food sources and habitat for creatures of the Earth. Life is fragile. Natural systems and the ties that bind can unravel in short periods of time.”

the marks in the fabric 
Irasema Quezada-Hammock
Book/ Mixed Media
5 x 5 in.

“I immigrated to Alabama as a child having no knowledge of the language, climate or my new country’s culture. I was at an age where I had already learned and developed some lasting developmental traits but I was also such an open vessel to learn more. Here I learned English, graduated high school, got married, attended college but like any other normal life there has also been loss, heartbreak and grief. 

the marks in the fabric reflects the many aspects of my experience in Alabama.  The threads intercross trying to mend the fragile fabric. The wear of the fabric from years of life hold together by mere strands. The patches and supports try to hold and repair life page by page. Marks and stains litter the pages reflecting the impressions that the everyday leaves behind. This is my history of 29 years in Alabama.”

Changing
Terra Rodgers
wood (cedar, maple, walnut and birch), image transfer, paint and oil finish
16 1/2 in. square, 1 1/2 in. tall

“I grew up surrounded by quilts and quilting as well as other forms of art and craft. Gender determined which crafts you practiced: women worked with fabric, men with wood and both with paper and paint. This piece allows me to connect my woodworking to the women in my family’s practice of craft.

I created this multi-layered puzzle from Alabama and Carolina woods, connecting my past and present homes. The first layer of the puzzle is based on the traditional half square triangle that can be rearranged to form many different popular quilt patterns. It invites people to rearrange the two different woods to create their own designs. The pieces are cedar and ambrosia maple. The color variation in the ambrosia maple comes from insect damage- sometimes it takes damage to make something interesting. The cedar is a nod to the cedar chest where grandmother stored some of her quilts.

The second layer is a hand cut jigsaw puzzle, an homage to the women who made do to care for their families, in this case by repurposing grain sacks for quilts and clothing. The cutting style includes many spirals, signifying an escape to dreamland under a pile of fluffy quilts. Items that are worn from love and use are more interesting and beautiful because of the history they contain. It’s true of the dry rotted quilt my grandmother made for her daughters and I tried to reflect that in the faded, worn grain sack puzzle.

This piece is both a connection to previous generations of my family and an invitation to the audience to participate in building and rebuilding a future in craft. There isn’t a right or wrong way to assemble the half square triangle layer- you have to make your own path.”

Marigold Meditation 1 (top)
Tara Sartorius
Graphite, hand-made marigold dye, gouache, ink on watercolor paper
9” x 9” unframed
12” x 12” framed

Marigold Meditation 2 (bottom)
Freehand Geometry
Graphite, hand-made marigold dye, gouache, ink on watercolor paper
9” x 9” unframed
12” x 12” framed

“These meditations are done completely freehand without the use of a ruler or compass. The pigment is primarily marigold dye that I harvested and processed myself. After working out the geometry and some initial shading in graphite and ink, I added small amounts of gouache to emphasize certain aspects of the images. My hand was my compass and my eye was my ruler. Just like getting cozy under a quilt made with love, this process required me to trust myself and the understanding inherent in the stretch of my own hands, arms, and eyes.

All these pieces have aspects of meditation and prayer that link order and chaos in non-premeditated ways. The fluctuations between being in and out of control are what engage me. I want my work to reflect balance and order, yet hint at the unruly process of getting there. The beauty in chaos often circles back to the poetic.”

Housetop Nine Square Variation
Sheri Schumacher
cotton cloth, Maiwa natural dyed linen remnants, thread, machine and hand sewing
17 1/2 x 11 in.

Sheri Schumacher is a designer and artist whose work focuses on the relationship between design, cultural studies and contemporary craft practices. Her recent textile works explore narratives about natural and cultural landscapes, experiences that have a connection to place. Inspired by the unique characteristics and qualities of different landscapes, she explores ways in which to translate the sensory experience of place with textiles. The work is characterized by using repurposed linens and garments with evidence of history of use and sewing techniques inspired by cultural traditions. Discovery through the act of making and the physical engagement with materials is central to her creative process. Though originally from other places, Schumacher has resided in Alabama for over 30 years. She received her MFA in Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art, MI, is an Associate Professor Emerita, School of Architecture, Auburn University and maintains a studio practice in Auburn, AL.
”When the Gee’s Bend Quilts were on exhibit in 2005 at the Auburn University Museum of Art, my students and I studied the composition of remarkable quilts and also applied Josef Albers color theory first hand. Seven years later I learned how to piece cloth and hand quilt in workshops taught by the world renowned quilters in the Gee’s Bend Quilters’ Collective located in Boykin, AL. My first pieced cloth work was a hand sewn Nine Patch and the second a Housetop variation. ‘Housetop Nine Square Variation’ is an homage to the Gee’s Bend quilters of Alabama who continue to inspire me with their creative work, life story and wisdom.”

A Cicada Funeral
Hannah Slatsky
found fabric, fabric paint, thread, embroidery floss, avocado dye

“I use mainly ink and watercolor in my artwork, but also found objects and fabric. I create characters to tell stories that cause people to ask themselves psychological questions. The questions the art asks are about the world around them, themselves, and where the source of beauty is from. With this piece I focused on memories of growing up in Alabama. A lot of my time growing up was spent outside playing pretend and looking through the dirt and leaves. One memory of playing and exploring in the backyard was a small funeral I had for a cicada. I placed pecans around the cicada to make a little grave for him and looked on joyfully. It was always exciting to see the new changes in the yard each day.

With this piece there is a calico cat underneath a small quilt that she is growing too big to be under. In this piece I drew inspiration from my time growing up in the backyard of my house. We were never allowed to leave the fenced in yard, but so much happened in that backyard. In the small quilt I placed symbols of these memories within the fence like stitching that I found on a old pillowcase. I still live in the same house I grew up in and will for the next eight months. It was wonderfully magical to dwell on the good memories I had in my Alabama yard growing up. As well to see the themes that still stick with me to this day and will continue to influence my life and art. The cat growing out of the quilt is like how I will soon move away from where I have always called home to a new place with new flowers, bugs, and memories to make.”

Run Rabbit Run
Jerry Slayton
Handmade Paper, Screen-print, Thread Collage
21 x 21 in.

Human Star I
Jerry Slayton
Handmade Paper, Screen-print, Fabric, Thread Collage
22 x 22 in.

“As an artist I want to make work that is a reflection of my thoughts and feelings regarding the natural environment. I'm interested in encapsulating the shelter, comfort, and connection I feel when in natural spaces and making them tangible for an audience through the creation of objects. These objects usually manifest as drawings, prints and animation. For me the woods are a place for healing, a place to learn through observation. It's not an ecstatic state, it's not always filled with pure joy, but rather a consistent and unfolding wealth that sometimes challenges me and yet allows me to connect with my surroundings and myself. There is a profundity to this feeling that I want to explore and share.”

Places I Know
Catherine Shelton
Acrylic on wood
18 x 18 in.
“My introduction into the Art world has been very recent. About two years ago I attended a drawing workshop at the Coleman Center for the Arts in York. During the workshop I drew a house from memory. The instructor, Garland Farwell, encouraged me to draw several versions of that house in different angles and color combinations. It was a thrill to discover the many possibilities of a single idea. I continue to draw and paint houses to this day. All of them are based on places I’ve lived from childhood until now. I’ve also begun painting about my other passion of gardening and horticulture.
Being a visual artist has opened doors and avenues I never knew possible. I continue to achieve new goals. One of which is to write the stories that go with each house. Only time will tell.”

Memory Houses
Catherine Shelton
Acrylic on wood
22 x 23 in.

Pine Bark Tiles
Laura Terry
Original monoprint collage with hand-stitching
24 x 9 1/2 in.

“These recent pieces explore the southern landscape through a particular lens: the pine forests of the South. Growing up in the South, pine trees and their textured barks conjure memories of summers spent collecting the shells of cicadas who found the trunks the ideal place to shed their exoskeletons. The subtle colors, the papery bark and the distinct tiling of the scales allows me to explore textures through mark-making and physical layers, then stitching them together. Each layer maintains its identity while also working together to create a holistic interpretation, albeit abstract, of a pine tree. This part to whole relationship is reminiscent of the landscape, where each tree has its identity but also contributes to the Gothic wonderland of the forest floor.”

Story-Tell-Her
Kami Watson
Fiber (wet felting, hand stitching)
36 x 26 in.

”Non-dyed naturally colored wool fibers have been integrated and tangled together to create the ancient textile form “felt”. The collection of panels, symbolic representations of ideals and ideas, were then stitched together with hand spun wool, thus creating a visual journey of exploration while navigating life as an artist. This piece differs from much of my work in that where I often use brightly colored salvaged or hand-dyed fabrics as the design element, here I am experimenting with resists, layers, texture, and natural color to create a collection of symbolic patterns, some specifically chosen for their ambiguity. Prior to moving to Alabama in 2013, I lived a nomadic life where beliefs and ideals varied greatly from one place to another, the exposure of diverse cultures shaping who I am and influencing my work. Even after having lived here now for seven years, I continue to navigate Alabama's diverse cultural construct. With a degree in Sociology, I have always been intrigued by individual perceptions based on one's life experiences and environment. The intentional ambiguity of designs, symbols, and panel placement included in this work lends itself to being open to differing interpretations by the viewer. However, there is no question that exposure to the cultural significance and visual aesthetic of Alabama's quilt history, particularly the Gee's Bend Quilters, has influenced this, as well as my general body of work in recent years.”