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Additional Artworks

From Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College

  1. We The People by Hank Willis Thomas, Image 1.

    Hank Willis Thomas

    We The People, 2025

    Mixed media, including decommissioned prison uniforms

    78 x 93 in (198.12 x 236.22 cm)

  2. LGBTQ Community Quilt Project, Image 1.

    LGBTQ Community Quilt Project, 2024

    Textiles

    54.5 x 39.25 in (138.43 x 99.7 cm)

  3. Double Body by Jackie Milad, Image 1.

    Jackie Milad

    Double Body, 2022

    Mixed media canvas collage

    37.5 x 18 in (95.25 x 45.72 cm)

  4. Dirty Laundry by Mella Jaarsma, Image 1.

    Mella Jaarsma

    Dirty Laundry, 2017

    Mixed media costume

  5. Untitled (I Have Been to Hell and Back) by Louise Bourgeois, Image 1.

    Louise Bourgeois

    Untitled (I Have Been to Hell and Back), 2007

    Embroidered handkerchief

    11.75 x 11.75 in (29.85 x 29.85 cm)

  6. Ge Yang

    Untitled (Story Cloth), c. 2000

    Embroidery on fabric

  7. Strength Found Gently in Water by Shirley Borella, Image 10.

    Shirley Borella

    Strength Found Gently in Water, 1969

    Etching on paper

    7.375 x 6.75 x 0.25 in (18.73 x 17.15 x 0.64 cm)

  8. Japanese Sashimono or Ai Jurishi Flags, Edo Period by Unknown, Image 1.

    Unknown

    Japanese Sashimono or Ai Jurishi Flags, Edo Period, ca. 1615-1868

    Silk

    24 x 10 in (60.96 x 25.4 cm)

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About the artist

Stella Mae Pettway

American

b. 1952

Stella Mae Pettway was born in Gee's Bend/Boykin, Alabama in 1952 into a tradition of quilt making spanning more than four generations. Gee’s Bend, also known as Boykin, Alabama, sits within a bend in the Alabama River south of Selma. Many within the isolated African-American community can trace their ancestry back to individuals enslaved at the Pettway Plantation that once stood in Gee’s Bend. After emancipation, many of the freed enslaved individuals and their relatives stayed in the area as sharecroppers. The quilting tradition in Gee’s Bend dates back to the 19th century, originally influenced by a combination of Indigenous American and African textiles. In the post-Civil War period and into the 20th century, the women of Gee’s Bend created quilts out of functional needs for themselves and their families. In the 1960s the Gee’s Bend community, alongside the Freedom Quilting Bee, gained recognition for their quilts and their involvement in the civil rights movement. In recent years, the collective has featured in shows at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The quiltmaking traditions passed down over generations resulted in a unique style characterized by geometric abstraction and a distinctly hand-made touch.

Drawing on the work of her mother, Georgianna, as well as earlier generations of quiltmakers, Stella Mae Pettway creates elaborate quilts using found and sourced cloth. She has developed the “My Way” approach, in which quilt patterns diverge from traditional simplistic geometric forms and incorporate distinctive asymmetry. Pettway has spearheaded a new generation of Gee’s Bend quiltmakers, one that embraces the designation of their works as art objects. Stella Mae Pettway still resides in Gee’s Bend and continues to work with the Gee’s Bend Collective.