Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 102; Carolyn Mazloomi interview, part 3 of 3

to tell you the story of my life his arm yeah i told my husband i was going to start making quilts and i wanted to make this a vocation me and he says well nobody's going to be interested in buying quilts you're sitting here cutting up mature real cutting the fabric and then selling it back together again who's gonna by that i don't see that there's a market for it so i'll twenty years later owl the quilt surrendered may and then i have a waiting list of people that want quilts and i'm quite happy and doing what i'm doing yeah

yeah tomorrow the quote is this is really secure family so how do people generations why but i state law will quote for a legacy for my children and hopefully grandchildren and great grandchildren because i'm a damn and they know me they will know me through my quilts how they will know their culture through my quilts and hopefully the quills will be cast down through generations and i will always be with them in their culture was always be with them through these quilts so for that it's important you're

actually engineer the warriors third have you been able to use any of those qualities those skills and probably not really initially when i started quoting mike rules were very traditional patchwork quilt is a and owl when i made these quilts the angles never met the corners never met they were just they were terrible am one engineer to bed when the mines don't meet you know huge you can't get a straight line together this is why i started making applicator or arc color cloth quotes there you know angles and there's freedom and you can do whatever you wanted do when you don't have to worry about matching corners even though might be my first love is traditional quilts i'm in

awe of traditional will speak was leaks extraordinary workmanship and nine hour to create these wonderful work will solve its my that's my first love is just that i can't make them accurately so i don't i don't do them i wish i could have bought it so i made the whole collage story quilts the european and a highly desirable what goes into it and i think he didn't know what to write i keep journals and diaries of events and stories that interest me and from time to time i revisit these journals and come up with our own home

set of images in my mind that guy i wanna created quotes i don't draw on paper it can't draw on paper but i use the fabric and i guess there's no rhyme or reason to it i just thought oh eight and whatever happens happens but in my mind i already know i know what i want to do and the quills just morphs from that point a hand i always say the quills not finished until it's quilted because he you know as an artist you still keep bailing stuff at the eerie less moment calm anything can happen so calm my ideas all our arm come to life through my journals and newspaper

articles and on whatever whenever stories of the time of the day that interest in five years or so this is what i'm going to do always the app that changes in it it changes are all but just like the strange fruit quilt i only intended to use the image of billie holiday and end the tree ol with the latest victims on it and name in thinking about my childhood ol n client activity in louisiana at the time i put other pitchers in that in the quilts sold quilts morph they can morph into something else

you can either and her takeaway but for me it's usually an owl more subjects to liquidate your spirit tales you when it's done and there's just something you stand back and you can save you can look at it and your spirit let's you know if it's if it's cooked are not if it's baked are not you can sit back and just take a look at it it makes you know i often say gee i wish i did some courses and color and calm there's something some type of quilted course quilting workshops because workshops right now are popular and there's so many takes neitz and whatnot they and they like think about color i think well gee i don't know how maybe i don't need to call what course because the

fabric has a voice color has a voice a call in which you know where even more to be placed between them on a plane the next to another color they fight with each other may make you know remove me put me someplace else so alma the fabric they have a voice of its own oil colors are here well as you can see i and low of color hand i equate color with light arms cole is a lively it's energizing it's invigorating and i wanted to i want to be surrounded by color column i'm not the person for a soft color i'm not the person for

soft colors a while i have a lot of energy and that's my life it's very energetic and i was i was see colors and i wanna see texture i don't like how the flat major work a quilt i want i want a quilted just jump out and and so while jean wahl with this color and giving energy back you know or a state owned banks the completion of a quilt depends upon the complexity of the quill i had worked on quilts fun quilts for a few days some quilts for many months several months so it's a big hands on the complexity of the quilts and the materials and the pianist

to on how much i'm involved with that quilt if i'm really into the story i'm going to work or met quilt every day until it's completed arm because i wanna see that story come alive solvay and the navy are wars that go into our how long it takes to make a quilt and it to the pianos on whether the quilt is being machine quilter and a quilted are all how complicated the techniques are i am involved in making that quilt your ankle yes i started out and quilting a man now why machine quilt i am physically and quilting is berate it's it's taxing i had carpal tunnel in both koreas so it's it's painful arm to quote by

here and now i saw a quote by pushing this initiative will archives i can't describe their arm looking at a finished quilt is very satisfying to me i feel a sense of accomplishment that i have designed this quilt than scenic through to completion it's very satisfying great comedian the women he made

i hear summer they have of the network has affected the actual physical quilt of ad the network has affected my attitude about quilt arm in being with these women and all of us have this passion for quilt making it makes you want a quilt more but also when you're in to know all of that is so few of us and your saving this art form with them a call sir knowing the importance of it makes you want to quote more it makes you want to share more it makes you want to organize more awkward it makes you want to

do everything that you can to perpetuate the cracks within the culture so from that stance it's it's it's very important on it makes you wanna move forth on the organization grow oh how to be inclusive especially of more young young folks were if i have the story of the women of color quarters met work i don't think that first of all quilts would've gotten the exposure that they've gotten in museums om people would not have known about the different types of quilts within the last african american quilt community the myth about the improvisational quote being the pot predominate quilt form within the african

american community would still be in place but more so it's about takes always share our of the quilts to the greater national community at large now we have educated the community through our quilt making palm not only about quilt making but about african american history and the contributions we as african americans have made are here in the country in fact it was revealed about summer programs but people kept on selling programs to get people involved in court ok come the women of color quarters network presents a youth workshop its children's workshops in within our own chapters we teach quote making two

adults so calm anyone that's interested in quote making aisle can join a chapter and learn how to quilt as well as a heart outreach programs i am for you network members go out and lecture whenever of a quilt deals are museums art galleries course kenyans especially school i want somebody to come in and talk about african american quoting on this is a service that they do on a national level to go out and talk about the history of african american quilts years old i sometimes think of quilts like it's a it's a it's a formal worship it's a repetitive on

repetitive movements sometimes but more so than that it's for me a time for deep thought when i'm making a quilt it's a form of meditation palm making a quilt is maybe it's very meditative and i think you just i go to another place and it's a peaceful place its solemn it's an area of retreat and the time for deep thinking when making a quilt then you haven't quelled any overpowering christmas on us roads that mean was that would prevent wasn't me

i have a quote in the permanent collection of the smithsonian's american gallery of art and to me that's very important because this is the national museum and to be represented there is great art as an african american to say that column that i have a quilt in their permanent collection a ma oh meaning the other great artist is important because it shows that we are i as an african american have made some contribution some positive contribution to the arts in this country and it was unworthy that contribution was worthy of our home preserving so it's it's not just about me but it's about my culture and it's about tal the history

of us as african americans here in this country to be in the smithsonian so what's it's about our story as a people fb is by my legacy as much art hall and the story of my people my legacy is about trying to save an important art form with international community are home that art form it's a dying

art form their pay has always been very very important within our cultures so that legacy is about preservation and presenting and we have a chapter here in awe of the women of color quote was no work here in ohio and it's just like all the other chapters we our week will together we present at museums and galleries around the state and around the nation because we are a part of the larger national group so always for me it's about finding new quilters in every time i find one it's like it hadn't gm a

discovery because they're so few of us our home so each one each each one is precious because they're so few so finding each other how we find joy and matt anne and that camaraderie is special so were getting together here and presenting and also the quilt was heavily involved themselves in the workshops we use here in the cincinnati area columbus and the dayton area so that's that's important alarm that the women be involved in teaching if i asked what you bet you think that everything i'm

sure he'll just talked to her on the island to know me having to be involved in the arts well as your or changed you not that i want to talk about the law because my teammates children come in sometimes and they look at the work and i say oh mother you're very angry today you know calm with that it depends on the subject matter alm i would like to say that creating art has made me a calmer more thoughtful person aa because i'm because i'm creating are art work that deals mostly with stories about women that makes you more compassionate are going thoughtful about the plight of other women that are less fortunate than myself

so i am when i think in terms of how i've changed i think i've become a more compassionate caring person i am about the plight of other women allow my work in the knowledge of what you're going through which is much worse than anything i could ever imagine as a woman living here in the united states or more or it will be a video posted at this is that you were not only that not only does the quilting neo unite are the women involved in the women of color corporate network but i always say as i travel the country and i travel a lot i never met a stranger in the national quota community i don't care what

race or what region of the country i'm in i don't meet strangers are in the quilt making community because yes we are all united through to three am of the needle arm it's the art form that unites us and we're not strangers were sisters in the spirit of the cool off they'll talk about that the recorded voices