1. Faith Ringgold

2. Faith’s Biography Born in Harlem, NY, 1930
Learned sewing from her mother as a young girl
She had asthma as a child, was very sick, so she spent a lot of time indoors working on art and sewing
Studied art at City College of New York (1950’s), and then in Europe in 1960’s
Now is an emeritus professor of art at University of California in San Diego
Writes children’s books (14 so far)
Does painting and sculpture, with strong influence from African art
Had done more than 95 quilts and 100 other pieces of art
Many of the quilts have stories written on them
Quilts combine arts of painting, quilting, and storytelling into one work
Started quilting instead of framing so that her paintings would be easy to ship

3. Soft Sculpture
Mrs. Jones and Family
Performance Mask

4. The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles
Madame C.J.Walker
1st American-born
woman millionaire
Vincent
Van Gogh
In this colorful painted quilt image, a group of African-American women proudly display their sunflower quilt, in a field of sunflowers, with Van Gogh standing quietly in the background, holding a vase of his beloved sunflowers. The buildings of the village of Arles are shown in the background, painted with the bright yellows and blues that Van Gogh loved to use in his paintings
Fannie Lou Hamer
Helped thousands of
people register to vote
Rosa Parks

5. Freedom Quilts
Years ago, quilts were actually used to help slaves “fly” to freedom
Patterns in the quilts had secret messages to guide escaping slaves to the north

6. Bitter Nest #1—Love in the School Yard
Can be seen
at the
Phoenix
Art Museum

7. Tar Beach

8. If one can, anyone can
All you gotta do is try

9. Dancing at the Louvre
In one of her later paintings, of her children in a European art museum (Dancing at the Louvre), the children played under the "masterpieces," not paying all that much attention. Underlying this wry observation, however, was the more serious reality of the absence of black people in the European art tradition, particularly women. The artists and the human images presented were almost all white - where did this leave a serious African-American student or artist, who surely would feel that this tradition, like others in society, blocked his/her entrance to it?

10. Matisse’s Chapel

11. Church Picnic