Juarez Hawkins

Mama Grigsby
assorted fiber quilt

Ours is a close-knit family. Scattered in the wind, Mama Grigsby would say. The quilts are my effort to piece together, scrap by scrap, my history, a glimpse at the lives of those who came before me. I’m fascinated by the idea that these women carried me, my essence, long before I ever arrived. My advent on this earth is through the bodies of my mothers.

I mix fabric textures that speak of my family’s sharecropper roots, their migration north, and their desire for the finer things in life. Country/city, rough/refined, humble/regal – that’s what I’m made of.

© Juarez Hawkins