Mary Jane Sneyd

Babies are born innocent and colorblind. They do not see others as black, white or yellow. Instead they see a playmate. As children age they learn by mimicking and they mimic the injustice and hatred they see around them. The two girls portrayed in the quilt are my little sister and her friend, from a photo taken by my father at my birthday party in Tennessee in 1967. My mother told me that some other girls’ mothers had called her saying their daughters could not come to my party because there would be negroes there.

Juried into the international OURstory exhibition about civil rights, 2018.
Exhibited in the guest exhibition in Houston, Texas, 2018.
Appeared on the front page of the Houston Chronicle, 2018.
Currently still touring in the USA.
Appears in the publication 'OURstory Quilts: Human Rights Stories in Fabric', Schiffer Publishing.

Dimensions: 25" x 40".
Materials: commercial cottons, batiks, recycled clothing.
Techniques: pieced, fused fabric collage, digital fabric printing, free motion quilting.
Finishing: rod pocket attached to back.