Mixed-media quilt assemblage, with hand embroidery, collage and appliqué, 2014. 1003x724 mm; 39 1/2x28 1/2 inches (43 1/2 inches in height with tassels). Signed "dindga", titled and dated in stitched purple thread, verso.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: i found god in myself: the 40th anniversary of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, October 6, 2016 - January 8, 2017.
Highlighting the strength and wisdom of a woman who has fully experienced the peaks and valleys of life, Dindga McCannon portrays a Harlemite sharing her wisdom with others. A consummate Renaissance woman, McCannon is a painter, printmaker, fashion and jewelry designer, quilter/textile artist, author and illustrator. Harlem Elder Diva Speaks captures her ability to adapt various media to create textile works that convey narratives that are not often told.
McCannon knew she wanted to be an artist from an early age, learning to sew from her mother and grandmother as a child. She chose not to attend college to study art - instead, she studied independently with artists Richard Mayhew, Al Hollingsworth and Charles Alston. McCannon became a member of the Weusi Artist Collective in the late 1960s, and was a founding member of "Where We At", Black Women Artists, Inc. (WWA), a collective of Black women artists affiliated with the Black Arts Movement. McCannon, Faith Ringgold and Kay Brown held the first WWA meeting in early 1971 in McCannon's Brooklyn home. McCannon also illustrated several books by Edgar White as well as wrote and illustrated two books of her own, Peaches and Wilhemina Jones, Future Star. Her artworks are in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Michigan State University, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
