Mary Margaret Pettway and Julian Jamaal Jones

Saturday, May 21st, 2022

Our guests for this presentation and conversation were 3rd generation Gees Bend quilter Mary Margaret Pettway, and interdisciplinary artist Julian Jamaal Jones. Come listen in on the conversation between a quilter with a deep patchwork heritage and an up-and-coming abstract quilt artist with a deep respect for that heritage.

Mary Margaret is an Alabama Humanities Foundation fellow and serves as the board chair of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and promoting African American artists in the South. She lives and quilts in Boykin, Alabama, best known as Gees Bend. From Souls Grown Deep: “…the settlement's unique patchwork quilting tradition that began in the 19th century has endured. Hailed by the New York Times as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced,” Gee’s Bend quilts constitute a crucial chapter in the history of American art and today are in the permanent collections of over 20 leading art museums.

Julian Jamaal Jones is an African American interdisciplinary artist and fashion photographer born and raised in Indianapolis, IN. Jones earned his Bachelor’s degree in Photography in 2020 from the Herron School of Art + Design in Indianapolis, IN, and just graduated from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI with a Masters in Photography under the tutelage of Chris Fraser. Jones merges a range of mediums to express his perspectives around black identity. His works bridge drawing, sculpture, and textile to memorialize black culture. In addition, Julian communicates through the historical language of African American quilting by implementing abstract forms and vibrant colors in his works to bypass the viewer’s critical faculties and open a conversation around his Black experience. He was recently noted by Sherri Lynn Wood as one of her top 5 picks for Quilters of the Future ( https://blog.spoonflower.com/2022/03/... ).

To see more from these amazing artists check out the links below:

Please visit https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-b... for more of the Gees Bend story, to see some of the stunning Gees Bend quilts, or donate.

You can find Gees Bend Quilters on Instagram at: @geesbendquiltmakers. Their website is https://linktr.ee/geesbendquiltmakers .

You can find Julian’s work on Instagram at: @julianjones.studios, and on his website at https://www.julianjamaaljones.org/#1.