{"id":10840,"date":"2021-12-09T14:07:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T14:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=10840"},"modified":"2021-12-30T14:12:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T14:12:04","slug":"against-the-grain-on-quilting-rebellious-spirits-and-the-miseducation-of-wendy-kendrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=10840","title":{"rendered":"Against the Grain: On Quilting, Rebellious Spirits, and the Miseducation of Wendy Kendrick"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Against the Grain<\/h2>\r\n

On Quilting, Rebellious Spirits, and the Miseducation of Wendy Kendrick<\/h3>\r\n
By Trelani Michelle<\/pre>\r\n
\u201cWhen the house creaks or makes some weird sound, I just say \u2018Hey, Ms. Aminah.\u2019 I figure she\u2019s just tipping through to see what I\u2019m working on.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n
I smiled when Wendy Kendrick, the 2021 Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Fellowship recipient, said that. The fellowship includes a three-month residency in Ms. Aminah\u2019s artful home. Artful is no exaggeration either, as everything from the doors to the cabinets and even the floors are embellished. After meeting Wendy at the Black Fine Arts Fair of Ohio and discussing her work and the fellowship, she invited the BAIA Squad to the house for a tour.\"\"<\/p>\r\n
And from the time we parked the van, I was blown away. Instead of grass, there were bricks and river rocks. On top of those were rusted wagon wheels\u2014one big and one small\u2014bottle trees within a bottle garden, which nudged at her southern roots, and Adinkra symbols painted onto the three concrete slabs leading to the porch steps. The symbol closest to the entrance was the Sankofa, depicting a bird flying forward with its head turned backwards, ever reminding us to learn from our past, to go back and fetch the lessons and stories of our elders and ancestors and bring them with us into our present and future. An historical marker stands just outside the front gate, letting passersby know who Ms. Aminah Robinson was, as both an artist and an active member of her Columbus community. The fully painted double doors, inscribed \u201cWithin our lives, our souls sings [sic],\u201d give you a heads up as to what lies behind.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cThis is where she created until she passed,\u201d Wendy said of Ms. Aminah\u2019s home. \u201cEverything was fair game for creating on. She utilized the entire house.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\"\"A cot in the foyer, titled \u201cFolktale From Poindexter Village, 1800-1957\u201d is one of the first things you see. \u201cShe was always documenting the neighborhood,\u201d Wendy explained, \u201cShe grew up in Poindexter, which was one of the early public housing developments in the U.S.\u201d Then you\u2019re met with yet another door, this one painted blue, brown, purple, red, and black with facial profiles, outstretched hands, and creatures resembling a bird and maybe a fox. \u201cShe was notorious for doing her doors,\u201d Wendy pointed out. Unfortunately, though, the doors are not original. \u201cThe museum took those down. When she passed, she left her estate and home to the Columbus Museum of Art. They replaced the doors with a replica.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Most artists, even if subconsciously, employ lessons from their parents and grandparents into their art. In a PBS Western Reserve interview, Ms. Aminah shared that her art doesn\u2019t come out of her. \u201cIt comes through me,\u201d she said, \u201cfrom a community, from a family, and from my immediate family who shaped my memory. And I just continue the work.\u201d Both of her parents were artists, and they taught her how to create art without commercial art supplies. So, in lieu of paint, she learned to use berries, dandelion, and even tree bark for pigment. Her mother taught her how to sew and her father taught her the art of \u201cobservational penetration,\u201d which is the ability to remember the details of everything and everyone in a space long enough to get back to your sketchpad and recreate it. He also taught her the recipe for hogmawg<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n
\"\"
Sculpture by Ms. Aminah created using Hogmawg<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Unlike the \u201chog maw” that I\u2019m familiar with\u2014a pig\u2019s stomach stuffed with potatoes, sausage, cabbage, and spices\u2014hogmawg is a mixture of mud, pig grease, homemade dyes, and grounded up brick that creates a mud-like substance that Ms. Aminah used to create sculptures and even chairs.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\"\"
Photo Credit: Columbus Dispatch<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Seeing this picture of Ms. Aminah in the chair she made, which looks more like a throne, reminds me of my grandmother saying \u201cYou gotta sleep in the bed you made.\u201d You have to live with the consequences of your actions. Our figurative beds aren’t only built from mistakes and missteps though, but from all our actions\u2014those we wish to forget as well as those we hope to foster, the intentional and the unintentional. And Ms. Aminah was a very intentional woman. An artist who, like the late blackwomanwriter Audre Lorde, was \u201cdeliberate and afraid of nothing.\u201d Unafraid of paint splatters on the floor and notes from friends and family written on the walls lowering the value of her home. Unafraid of people thinking that hogmawg is unsightly and perhaps even gross. Unafraid of being a tall, bald black woman with hoops adorning the tops-to-the-bottoms of her earlobes. Of all of her work being about black people, \u201cand when not directly about black people, from the perspective of a black woman<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Reflecting on Ms. Aminah\u2019s brazenness takes me back to my conversation with Wendy at the Black Fine Arts Fair, standing in front of her crowd-luring quilt titled \u201cPatience.\u201d Born in Kentucky and raised in Ohio, her parents wanted her to go to Kentucky State to become a teacher. \u201cThey were encouraging me to get a job that makes sense,\u201d she said. \u201cThey taught me what they knew, and they didn\u2019t know any artists.\u201d Black parents have a history of believing that art is a hobby, not a real job<\/a>. There\u2019s no ill-intent though. Like Wendy\u2019s folks, they simply want what\u2019s best for their soon-to-be-adults: to not have to struggle. Wendy\u2019s parents also preferred Kentucky State because it was closer to home and where they went to school. Instead, she went over 800 miles away to the private Ivy league, Dartmouth College, to major in art.<\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
“Patience”<\/a> by Wendy Kendrick | 21 x 65 inches fabric, machine and hand stitched quilt \u2014 unframed<\/p><\/div>\r\n
\u201cSo you rebelled?\u201d I asked her.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cYou better believe it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that was the first time I ever broke the reins with my parents.\u201d But staring at \u201cPatience,\u201d a quilt that\u2019s longer than it is wide, centering a black woman with bantu knots, a prominent nose, fluffy lips, and folk-artish jewelry, I couldn\u2019t help but ask if there was some rebellion in her artistic process too.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\u201cIt is,\u201d she confirmed, \u201cbecause most of the people I\u2019m in community with have come from the traditional route of quilting, so I\u2019m still having to plug my ears because traditional quilters often believe that things have to be done a certain way. I\u2019m a back door person though. I\u2019m coming from the opposite direction, and I\u2019m good with it. This is me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
“Led by God”<\/a> by Wendy Kendrick | 24 x 67 inches, fabric, machine and hand stitched quilt \u2014 unframed<\/p><\/div>\r\n
I\u2019m also a rebel. I was the first in my family to homeschool (then later unschool) my children. I wrote a religious novel that\u00a0had cussing in it. I quit my university job at 25 years old to write. I turned down a publishing deal to self-publish. I\u2019m used to saying thanks-but-no-thanks to advice that\u2019s meant to protect me from myself, and I\u2019ve learned that if you keep your ears plugged long enough, an angel will cross your path and tell you that you\u2019re doing exactly what you should be doing. And if you keep on keeping on, then some of those same folks who initially disagreed will circle back with approval and maybe even some how-to questions. That\u2019s exactly what happened with Wendy, who didn\u2019t start out as a quilter.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cI started as a collage artist in mixed media, on paper first. Then I went to canvas, primarily because I started bringing fabric into it and then the fabric started getting really heavy.\u201d Wendy told me about meeting Cynthia Lockhart at a show they participated in together. They were both rushing inside with their scissors and thread in hand. After a brief conversation, Cynthia, whose background is fashion design, told Wendy, \u201cGirl, take everything that you\u2019re doing in collage and bring it over to fabric.\u201d That\u2019s exactly what she did. Then, in 2010, Wendy participated in a women\u2019s artist exchange in Tanzania. \u201cWhat resonated with me was the mix of patterns and what some of the women were wearing. We even got to visit with artists there.\u201d True to Sankofa, Wendy gathered all the stories she\u2019d heard, saw, and felt in East Africa, not far from the birthplace of humanity, and incorporated those stories into her art. \u201cWhen I came back,\u201d she said, \u201cthere was a major shift. I had a show scheduled, but everything had changed for me. The gallerist told me, \u2018I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to get this.\u2019 She wasn\u2019t feeling it, but I didn\u2019t care. I had to get it out.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
What that gallerist didn\u2019t know was that Wendy had not too long ago freed her artistry. After a college professor ridiculed her work, she backed away for more than 10 years. Stuffed her craft so far down inside of her that when she gifted her husband a pastel drawing, he asked her where she got it from. She told him she did it, and he almost didn\u2019t believe her. Stunned, he told her to keep going, but she retreated again. Then she was going through an old portfolio one day and her then seven-year-old daughter\u2019s eyes lit up. \u201cOh, I like that! Who did that?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\r\n
After her professor\u2019s destructive criticism, Wendy had unknowingly made a vow that she\u2019d leave art in the past. It wasn\u2019t until she went on a women\u2019s retreat with her church that she acknowledged the vow, learned how to break it, and then, one day at a time, began actually breaking it. Easing her way back into the art world, she became a docent for the Columbus Museum of Art for eight years, which is where she first met Ms. Aminah in person. She dabbled in framing for a while and taught art workshops to children. Doing a little here and little there but not too much to bring attention to herself.<\/p>\r\n
One of the perks of working with the museum, however, was being able to take classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Starting out with Fundamentals, she got back into the groove of drawing and painting. She shared her experience with the teacher of her oil painting class, who was impressed by her work, and he said \u201cWendy, the only thing you need is probably just a few basics and you\u2019ll click right back in.\u201d There weren\u2019t many women in the program, not many black people either, and she was the oldest in class. But she was on a mission. After the courses ended, she continued doing collages then fabrics and textiles, and joined a community of creators who shared her enthusiasm for quilting.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Alas…she was free to become the artist she\u2019d been since she was a child.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\"\"
Sankofa symbol on the front pathway of Ms. Aminah’s house<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Freeing yourself is one thing, however, and claiming ownership of that freed self, as Toni Morrison said best, is another. And after ten years of suppressing her artistry, another nearly ten years of operating in the shadows, then finally emerging, practicing, and presenting, and especially after traveling to the motherland, she owned<\/em> her freedom. This ownership is precisely what made going against the grain okay with her. It\u2019s what the gallerist who feared that the audience wouldn\u2019t understand encountered. So it\u2019s no wonder Wendy didn\u2019t care that someone wasn\u2019t feeling her work and no wonder she was compelled to get it out anyway. At that point, it was beyond the mental and physical. She was being Spirit-led.<\/p>\r\n
Going against the grain paid off for Wendy, just as it did Ms. Aminah. After being awarded the 2004 MacArthur \u201cgenius grant,\u201d Ms. Aminah used the money to travel, purchase art supplies, and add a studio to her home. Her work with fabrics oftentimes went on so long that she preferred to call them RagGonNons<\/em> rather than quilts. They rag on and on, in an effort to \u201creach the Creator,\u201d some as wide as 60 feet. Whether fabrics, furniture, sculptures, children\u2019s books, or even the tile in her kitchen floor, everything she made reflected two of her deepest values, which were family and community\u2014the community of Columbus, of South America, Italy, Israel, Africa, and everywhere else she planted her feet. She was committed to the art of Sankofa, committed to retelling the stories that had been told to her orally, visually, and spiritually. Her gift made room for herself, her ancestors, and for everyone who encountered her work. After her death in 2015, she continued to make room for other artists to remember, retell, refine, and refocus.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/p>\r\n
Blessed with the opportunity, Wendy is using the space to, like Ms. Aminah, continue creating pieces that are about black people from the perspective of a black woman. Pieces that incorporate sewing, which her grandmother taught her to do; storytelling, which her mother had excelled at; and vibrant patterns, which her travels inspired in her. Pieces that now have some of her initial critics asking when she\u2019s doing another workshop. Pieces that were, for sure, the catalyst of a full circle moment when she asked her daughter where she\u2019d gotten the ring she was wearing; her daughter said that she\u2019d made it. Pieces that, from first sight, urged Black Art in America to represent her work. Pieces that gave me the certainty that Ms. Aminah chose Wendy for this fellowship so that she could be free from interruptions and given the money to get the headshots, sewing machine, and hydraulic table she needed.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Pieces that have Ms. Aminah tipping through the house and peeking over Wendy\u2019s shoulder to see what she\u2019s working on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/p>\r\n
Browse and shop for fine art from our growing network of artists, collectors, estates, galleries \u2014 specializing in works by Black American artists with great values on premier art.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
START COLLECTING ART<\/span><\/h1>\r\n
Sign up for our\u00a0free\u00a0email course<\/strong><\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>on how to begin your collection.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
\"\"Trelani Michelle<\/strong>\u00a0is originally from Louisiana, Monroe and New Orleans, and currently lives in Savannah, Georgia. A graduate of Savannah State and Savannah College of Art and Design, Trelani is a full-time writer and editor, who specializes in ghostwriting life stories and \u201cZora Neale Hurstoning.\u201d She recently published Krak Teet<\/a><\/em>, an oral history of Savannah\u2019s black elders and was crowned Savannah\u2019s Best Local Author.<\/p>\r\n
As BAIA\u2019s new editor, she\u2019ll now be in charge of screening articles from our contributors, editing website content, and making sure our newsletters and Patreon communications are current and engaging.<\/p>\r\n
Would you buy stock in BAIA if you could?<\/strong> Well we invite you to join us in becoming a monthly supporter, starting at just $3 a month YOU become a stakeholder and begin to help us transform lives through art. We are growing the BAIA team and will use your contributions to hire more team members for the purpose of creating more educational and marketing resources for schools and universities about african american artists both past and present. Such art initiatives and educational programming like Blacklite with Steve Prince, Relating to Art with Dr. Kelli Morgan, and BAIA BITS would not be possible without the ongoing support of our Patreon members. Please consider becoming a monthly Patreon member today!<\/p>\r\n
Review our list of rewards for becoming a BAIA\u00a0Patreon<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\/ patron supporter. Your monthly contribution has lasting benefits. \u2014 \u201cWhat will your legacy be\u201d \u2013 Dr. Margaret Burroughs<\/p>\r\n
Thank you new and recurring monthly<\/span> Patrons<\/h1>\r\n
Deloris and Eddie Young<\/b>,\u00a0<\/b>Esther Silver-Parker<\/b>,\u00a0<\/b>Eugene Foney<\/b>,\u00a0<\/b>Zadig & Voltaire, Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art<\/b>, John and Melanie Guess, Frank Frazier, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Leslie Fields, Jim Nixon, Dr. Michael Butler, Mary \u201cMadea\u201d Jones,\u00a0<\/b>Patrick Stewart, Noreen Winningham, Reg Pugh, Kevin Smokler, Deborah R. Moore, Dr. Skyller Walkes, Jae M, Jocelyne Lamour, Marion Zweig, Shannon DeVaney, Ashlee Jacob, DaNia Childress,\u00a0Rev. Anita Marshall<\/strong>, Mary Ali-Masai, Devera Redmond, Roslyn Valentine, Robin King, Brenda Larnell, Michael, Jeffery Washington, Tricia Konan, Debra L Lacy CHARLES BIBBS, Fredric Isler,\u00a0Silvia Peters<\/strong>,\u00a0 Harold Moore, Shurvon Haynes K.Coleman Shannon Dale Davis Terese L Hawkins M. Rasheed Jamal Love Annette,\u00a0Mason Archie<\/strong>, Manuelita Brown,\u00a0Carolyn L. Mazloomi<\/b>\u00a0 Gale Ross KL Martin michael jacobs Virginia Joy Simmons Christ Van Loan Sr. Cecilia Winters-Morris, Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Pearlie Taylor,\u00a0Danny Jenkins<\/strong>, Sara, Lloyd Goode, Marina Kovic, Sarah Rooney, Mitchell Shohet, Nicole Farley, Cheryl B Blankman, Jocelyn Greene, Laura Di Piazza Petrina Burkard Hannah Diener Sarah Drury Claire Sig Mina Silva Whitney, Sara Friesen, Megan LaCroix, Kellyn Maguire, Sophia Bellin,o Cory Huff, Wilhelmina Barker, Linda Eaddy, Shelley Danzy, Rosalyn D. Elder, Sonia Spencer Karen Pinzolo Desiree Dansan, Deborah Paige-Jackson, ALKEBU LAN IMAGES Bookstore DeLores M Dyer, Shelia, Harry F Banks, Susan Ross, Dr. Diane R. Miles, Carlton Cotton, Andre Mitchell, Joan L. Ward, JOCELYN BENITA SMITH,\u00a0Paul Robinson<\/b>, Janice Orr, Patricia D Dungy, Ethnie Weekes, Shawn Rhea, Duke Windsor, Runez M Bender, Karen Y House, M Belinda Tucker, Dr. Yonette Thomas, Diana Shannon Young, Judith Hamilton, Julia Turner Lowe, Francene Greene, Caryliss R. Weaver, Sharmon Jane Hilfinger, Bill and Deborah Nix, joyce a, Wanda Baker-Smith, Timothy Gandley, Anneke Schwob, Emily M, Rachael horner, Morris Howard, Marie L Johnson, Ayoka Chenzira, Jean Gumpper, Caitlin Charles, Becca H,.\u00a0Dr. Darlene White,<\/b>\u00a0Dr. Sandra Boyce Broomes, Michele C. Mayes,\u00a0<\/b>Rita Crittenden, Reginald Laurent, Jea Delsarte, Brenda Brooks, Suzette Renwick,\u00a0BEVERLY GRANT,<\/b>\u00a0Linda B. Smith, Judith Bergeron, Emily Hegeman Cavanagh, Teri L Lewis, Cooky Goldblatt, Danni Cerezo, Hollis Turner, cdixon06, Freda Davis, Sarah Caputo, jacki rust, Curtis Morrow, Christina Levine, Jessica Beckstrom, Kim Walker, Pamela Hart,\u00a0Ted Ellis,<\/b>\u00a0Louise berner-holmberg, Carla Sonheim, Nicole Bruce, Alison Deas, Monikapi, Ashley Littlefield,\u00a0Reginald Browne\u00a0<\/b>Bill Cook, SylviaWong Lewis, DONNA PAXTON, Kanika Marshall, Cheyenne, Nancy Maignan, Kimberly Smith, Tracy Russ, Gwen Meharg, K Joy Peters, johnnie mae maberry, Lester Marks, Zishan Evans, Anne king, Dianna A. Harris, Arbrie Griffin Bradley, Sandra Sautner,\u00a0Barbara Brown<\/b>, Bronwen Hodgkinson,\u00a0Sonia Deane,<\/b>\u00a0January Hoskin, Quinton Foreman, Key Mosley, Jim Alexander, Terri Pease, Annette Groschke, Richard MacMillan, D T Ray, Camille, Elayne Gross, Ann Tankersley, Samori Augusto, Karen M Hirsch, Jeanne H Chaney, Jacqueline Konan, Jerome Moore, Patricia Andrews-Keenan, India Still, Luna Cascade, Amy Peck, Marnese Barksdale, Elder Bridgette, Ren\u00e9 McCullough, Kevin and Tracy Burton, Raven Burnes, Kim Dubois, Edwina King Diva E, Charlotte Bender,\u00a0Phyllis Stephens,<\/b>\u00a0Alisa R Elliot, Ebony English, Otto Neals, Michael Nix, Terri Bowles, Nelly Maynard, Leslie Smith, Bernard W. Kinsey, Toby Sisson, Raynard Hall, Milton Loupe, Wren Mckinley, Arturo Lindsay, Lindiwe Stovall Lester, Phil,\u00a0Ricki Carroll,\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 Sherman E Jackson Jr, Janine P Rouson, Raynard Hall, Vickie Townsend-Carter, Peter Prinz, PB Fine Art Appraisal, Alison Woods, Suzette Davis, Carlton Cotton, Art Now After Hours, Diane E Leifheit, Tamara clements, \u00a0lisa tomlinson, vince leal, Deborah BarnwellGarr, Sonia Pollard, Barbara Hayes, Loretta Y Blakely, Gregg Y, Paige Jernigan, Randy McAnulty, raven walthor, Will Johnson, jack, Shameika Ingram, Trina Virginia Brooks, Black Wall Street Gallery, Suzanne Roberts, Faye Edwards, Tara, Crystal Green, Sedonia Phillips Kniskern, \u00a0R Simpson, Kate Gadd, Judy Nyquist, Velma McLaurin-Bell, Frazier and Myra O\u2019Leary, Rosemarie Rogers, Elaine Buchsbaum, Hope Elliott, Renee Williams Jefferson, Atiya Slaughter, <\/strong>Stephanie Stephens, Takisia Whites, Robert Taylor, Christina, Taylor Jackson, Brenda Joyner, Dr. Karen Patricia Williams, Paul Daniel Curtis, Zawadi, DJIBRIL N\u2019DOYE, Monique Johnson, Christine J Vincent, and Paige Jernigan.<\/p>\r\n
 <\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n
We Appreciate Your Support<\/p>
Share this:<\/h3>