About / Visual Arts / My Folklore: The Art of Letitia Huckaby

My Folklore: The Art of Letitia Huckaby

by Letitia Huckaby

Joy Pratt Markham Gallery, October 4, 2012 - January 13, 2013

East Feliciana Alter Piece, Letitia Huckaby

ARTIST STATEMENT

My grandmother often told me a story of when she was a young woman, separated from my grandfather, a soldier in the war, and pregnant with my father. One of her older brothers had come upon a small amount of change, and had gone to the store for some sardines and crackers. When he came through the door, he proclaimed to his new wife, “Look what a man’s got!” My grandmother was so tickled by this, that it became what she said anytime she felt blessed.

My artistic career began in documentary photography, but after the loss of my father and my grandmother, I became interested in making art that dealt with more personal issues. For the first time I turned the camera on myself, my family, and my African-American heritage.

I begin many works by printing photographic images onto cotton and silk fabrics that are treated to hold pigment prints. I then sew the fabric into quilts, dresses, quilt tops and other pieces. Some of the artworks on display in this exhibition are from LA19, a series of portraits of family members who lived on or near Louisiana’s state highway number nineteen. Selections from a second body of work, the Quilts and Dress Project, offer a form of self-portraiture. Together, these works celebrate connections between past and present, memory and invention, craft traditions, and new ways of seeing.

“Look what a woman’s got!”

Artist Website: http://www.letitiahuckaby.com

You Tube Video: Studio Tour with Letitia Huckaby

Profile of The Huckabys in a National Endowment for the Arts publication: Priorities & Persistence