South Carolina - Mixed Media

Artist Commentary: During the spring of 2011, Columbia fiber and installation artist Susan Lenz spent a mere two hours along South Carolina’s coastline coll...

Ann Graves Tanksley, Untitled (Mother and Child), mixed media on Japan paper, c. 1960s. Signed 'A. Tanksley' in gold in the image, lower right. Linoleum cut in black ink on Japanese paper, with blue and gold brushed ink; cloth batik collage, and metallic gold star laid onto black construction paper. Created as a seasonal greeting. Inscribed on the inside panel is 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love, John & Ann.' Archivally matted to museum standards. Unique. Image size 7 3/8 x 4 7/16 inches (187 x 113 mm); front panel size 8 11/16 x 5 3/4 inches (221 x 146 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST “Her work reflects the influence of her travels, the residential colors, the simple work habits, the loneliness, and the love and devotion to one’s spiritual beliefs. There is a oneness of artist and concept. Her love of life, despite social barriers and frustrations, is promoted in her work for audiences to witness and accept... Her paintings evoke a spiritual awakening. One is drawn to the intensity of color that prevails and identifies the moods of feasts and celebrations. ...Life is full of anticipation and dedication, of acceptance and hope, of faith and survival. These are all present in the works of Ann Tanksley.” —Robert Henke, The Art of Black American Women: Works of Twenty-Four Artists of the Century, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1993. Ann Graves was born in 1934 and raised in the Homewood community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Drawn to art at an early age, Tanksley graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1956 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Following graduation from college, she married fellow Homewood native John Tanksley, and the couple moved to Brooklyn, New York. He worked as a photo retoucher in the advertising industry. Tanksley devoted herself to raising her daughters while working as an art instructor before fully pursuing her artistic pursuits. She was an art instructor at Queens Youth Center for the Arts from 1959-62, the Arts Center of Northern New Jersey in 1963, and a substitute art instructor at Malvern Public Schools in 1971. She also served as an adjunct art instructor at Suffolk County Community College from 1973-1975. Tanksley continued her art education with studies at the Arts League of New York, The New School, the Paulette Singer Workshop in Great Neck, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, where she learned monotype printmaking. In addition to Blackburn and Singer, Tanksley studied with several renowned artists throughout her career, including Norman Lewis (artist), Balcomb Greene, and Samuel Rosenberg (artist). Tanksley was one of the first members of Where We At: Black Women Artists, Inc., a New York-based women’s art collective founded by artists Kay...

Artist Lisa Weiss uses handmade paper and various different inks with Goldleaf on each piece she makes. Every piece is very unique throughout her creative process. "Essentially ...

Ralph Arnold, 'Cascade', mixed media: acrylic, pencil, conté crayon, marker, oil; 1986-88. Signed 'Arnold' and dated '86-88' in pencil, lower right. A fin...

Katherine S. Dreier, 'Variation 4, Vol. I' from '1 to 40 Variations', lithograph with pochoir and hand-coloring, 1934, edition 65. Stenciled signature and date, lower right. Annotate...

Katherine S. Dreier, 'Variation 5, Vol. I' from '1 to 40 Variations', lithograph with pochoir and hand-coloring, 1934, edition 65. Stenciled signature and date, lower right. Annotate...

Artist Commentary: It all starts with Linnie Rose Oswald. She was my Great-Grandmother, the eighth of Elnore Rose's nine children. (All but one were girls.) During the 1920s she operated her own business and posed for a photo beside the laundry's vehicle. Family stories tell of a feisty red-headed woman with a will of iron, a temper, and a very strong work ethic who drove down the middle of Huntington, West Virginia's city streets as if she owned them. In all likelihood, Linnie needed these qualities. Being a female business woman in this era had to be hard! She would have gotten the right to vote around then. Later, Linnie owned almost a block of town and rented apartments. I remember her from the days when managing her apartments was problematic. Linnie lived to be ninety-six years old but dementia took her years beforehand. I was in college when she died in a nursing home in Kentucky. The last time I saw her, she wasn't aware of the visit. Her mind was elsewhere ... talking about the clothes she was making and the quilts she would stitch. What a woman! Keywords: art quilt, textile, paint Artist Biography: Susan Lenz...

Artist Commentary: This is a series of 42 vintage, Sun Bonnet Sue quilt blocks hand stitched with feminist call-for-action statements. Keywords: ...