Gwen Magee joined the ancestors last night.
She was an incredible quilter.
This one was made in 2007 and is called ‘Five Years Hard Labor’ — it’s in the permanent collection of the Mississippi Museum of Art (which I visited last week and can’t even begin to say how wonderful it is).
From her obit that went over the AP:
…Her works were displayed or collected by the Smithsonian Institution and in the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African-American History.
Friends say Magee was working on a commissioned piece at the time of her death — a quilt about the Freedom Riders for a museum in Montgomery, Ala. It was unfinished.
She was a recipient of the 2011 Governor’s Award for Excellence.
This is her website; she has many images of her quilts here (nice slideshow) along with some of her comments. MPB’s interview with her here.
Gwen had so much more to do. Her pieces are *powerful*. Some political. Always interesting. Strong, strong, strong.