Bisa Butler

 I was going to talk about several different things in this post, but when I looked through my pictures from the incredible show I attended this week I decided that this was worthy of my whole post. I'll write  some more about other things soon. 

I am very fortunate to live about a half hour from the Katonah Museum of art in Katonah, NY. It is a small museum without a permanent collection, so when they put on a show it is always just one artist or one genre. 

I am surprised that I had never heard of Bisa Butler. She is a youngish African American artist who works from black and white photos of African Americans from the 1800's and 1900's, some of them her relatives. She turns them into larger-than-life-size art quilts, using the most amazing fabrics and color combinations. We were just blown away. If you live anywhere near enough, please don't miss it. The show is on until October 4. You have to make a reservation and buy a ticket online. They were excellent about social distancing and mask wearing. I felt very safe.  

You can read about it on the website and also see some terrific videos. Here I will show you just a few to whet your appetite. 

This quilt was enormous, maybe the size of a king size quilt.

They showed the original photo that inspired this quilt. In it the boys were sitting on the hood of a car, wearing just ordinary suits and ties. 

It would be hard to pick a favorite, but this was one of them and it was one of the smaller pieces. Look at the colors she has used in the face!

I just loved the sassy look on this little  girls' face. This was also a smaller quilt compared with most of the others.

This was a group of African American college students sometimes in the late 1800's. In the photo they were sitting on the steps of the school. Next to each quilt was the story behind it.

She uses raw-edge appliqué and quilts them on a long arm. There was a video loop playing of her working in her studio.

For some reason, the new Blogger will not allow me to post these pictures any bigger, but if you click on the picture and then then click again, you can see more of the fabulous detail. Please do...you don't want to miss a thing. 

I'm linking up, a little late, with Off the Wall Friday.