Wangari Maathai quilt by Bisa Butler
A native of Orange, NJ, Bisa Butler is an American fiber artist known for her quilted portraits and designs celebrating the lives and culture of African Americans. As a child, she spent her free time first watching her mother and grandmother sew, then being taught by them. She majored in Fine Art at Howard University, where she studied the work of Romare Bearden and attended lectures by prominent black artists such as Lois Mailou Jones. While pursuing a master’s degree, she took a Fiber Art class that inspired her choice of quilting as an artistic medium. After that class, she made her first quilt, a portrait created in homage to her grandmother upon her deathbed. From that point on she turned to quilting full time, and the rest is HERstory.
Africa is such a beautiful and diverse country teeming with amazing wildlife, rivers, mountains and deserts. The cultural history of the continent and its people dates back to the cradle of civilization. Fabric in Africa has a millennial story behind it. It truly is sacred to the culture. Philosophy, ethics, morals and history are all conveyed through each thread. Not only are the patterns valued as a means to communicate a message but also the colors that are chosen are significant.
