A Little Bit of Gee's Bend in my Back Yard
As many of you know, I love quilts. I particularly love Gee's Bend quilts. So, a few months ago, we had the brilliant idea to transform this RV shed (located in our back yard with no RV in it)...
... into a work of art. I wasn't sure where to find an artist for this very BIG project, so I started asking around. I got a few names -- AND THEN I walked into Clay Library to pick up some book from the hold shelf. Above the circulation desk was a new painting of the old (very charming) house that was the Clay Library until very recently. I asked who was the artist and was told, "it's Jenna, and she's setting up for an event in the other room." Jenna, who works at the library! Right then I talked to Jenna to see if she might be interested in doing our mural, and lucky us, she was! And so began the process of determining exactly what we wanted on the shed.
Jenna came out to look at the space and gave us some ideas -- her comment, "I had the measurements, but it's SO BIG!" But she wasn't scared off, she was ready to go! She told us her idea to incorporate the tree into the art and soon gave us a preliminary sketch to which we gave our comments.
Through that process we figured out what we really wanted -- a little chapel, sunflowers, a cat, and... Gee's Bend quilts on a line! I fell in love with Jenna's sketch, and we were off and running! Jenna's father (also an artist) helped her get started. It was sweet to watch them working together! Here's a few pictures of the process:
late April 2019
mid-May 2019
early June 2019
Jenna on the scaffolding,
working on the chapel -
early June 2019
close-up of Jenna's rendition
of a quilt by Annie Mae Young
and finally.... here's the gorgeous finished mural... didn't Jenna do an amazing job?!
close -up, mid-June 2019
(quilts from L-R after Annie May Young,
Lola Pettway, Mary Lee Bendolph)
our backyard!
Jenna Clark,
mural artist extraordinaire!
We feel so lucky to get to enjoy this beauty every single day... I told Paul now we can never move. :) Thank you, Jenna.. .and thank you, Gee's Bend quilters! xo
... into a work of art. I wasn't sure where to find an artist for this very BIG project, so I started asking around. I got a few names -- AND THEN I walked into Clay Library to pick up some book from the hold shelf. Above the circulation desk was a new painting of the old (very charming) house that was the Clay Library until very recently. I asked who was the artist and was told, "it's Jenna, and she's setting up for an event in the other room." Jenna, who works at the library! Right then I talked to Jenna to see if she might be interested in doing our mural, and lucky us, she was! And so began the process of determining exactly what we wanted on the shed.
Jenna came out to look at the space and gave us some ideas -- her comment, "I had the measurements, but it's SO BIG!" But she wasn't scared off, she was ready to go! She told us her idea to incorporate the tree into the art and soon gave us a preliminary sketch to which we gave our comments.
Through that process we figured out what we really wanted -- a little chapel, sunflowers, a cat, and... Gee's Bend quilts on a line! I fell in love with Jenna's sketch, and we were off and running! Jenna's father (also an artist) helped her get started. It was sweet to watch them working together! Here's a few pictures of the process:
late April 2019
mid-May 2019
early June 2019
Jenna on the scaffolding, working on the chapel -
early June 2019
close-up of Jenna's renditionof a quilt by Annie Mae Young
and finally.... here's the gorgeous finished mural... didn't Jenna do an amazing job?!
close -up, mid-June 2019(quilts from L-R after Annie May Young,
Lola Pettway, Mary Lee Bendolph)
our backyard!
Jenna Clark, mural artist extraordinaire!
We feel so lucky to get to enjoy this beauty every single day... I told Paul now we can never move. :) Thank you, Jenna.. .and thank you, Gee's Bend quilters! xo
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