Quilts
Lucy T. Pettway (1921–2004), Snowball (quiltmaker's name), c. 1950
Cotton, corduroy, cotton sacking material, 85 x 83 in.; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
More than any other artist of her generation, Lucy T. Pettway epitomized the remarkable versatility of quiltmaking in Gee’s Bend. She was often attracted to established patterns, gleaning many of her ideas from quilt books given to her family by white people across the river in Camden. But each of her quilts contained personalized touches of artistry, and throughout a lifetime of prolific quiltmaking, she avoided ever repeating herself. Like a jazz musician, She loved to take a commonplace and recognized theme and turn it into an improvisational tour de force, such as her Snowball quilt.
Raised and trained by several of Gee’s Bend’s most serious quiltmakers, Lucy T. Pettway (1921-2004), known as “Lunky,” made quilts for seven decades. Whereas many quilters would develop an approach to quilting early on that remained consistent throughout their lives, Pettway rarely repeated herself. She was curious as an artist and conspicuously sought to explore almost every pattern known to her and to personalize it with her precise interpretation.
As she walked to and from the fields each workday, she carried a pencil and paper in her pocket to sketch ideas and observations. Sometimes a quilt drying on a line or a fence offered suggestions: a variation of the observed quilt, perhaps, or a variation of a detail, or a combination of colors. Something she noticed along the road or from the field might do the same. She sometimes took cloth scraps to the fields so that as ideas came to her while she worked, she could immediately create a quilt block during her rest break.
Pettway’s daughter, Mary Margaret Pettway, serves as board chair of Souls Grown Deep Foundation and Community Partnership.
Lucy T. Pettway’s work is in numerous permanent collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the High Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Learn more about Lucy T. Pettway here.
Quality
Souls Grown Deep Custom Prints offers custom reproductions of artworks by Souls Grown Deep artists. Hand-made in the USA using gallery-quality materials, we create prints as true to the original work as possible, using strict color management protocols and state-of-the-art printing technology.Selection
Many of the works offered through this store are exclusive and not available anywhere else. We are continually adding new artworks to our offering, so be sure to check back regularly as you build your own gallery.