Pecolia Warner (March 9, 1901 – March 1983) was an American quiltmaker.

Early life

Pecolia Leola Deborah Jackson was born in a log house near Bentonia, Mississippi, and raised in

Yazoo City Yazoo City is a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's m ...

, the ninth of eleven children. She learned to make quilts from her mother Katie (a trained teacher) and other older women in her community. "It's a gift from God to be able to do this," she explained. "That's my gift, that's my talent. Making quilts, that's my calling."

Career

Warner worked various jobs as a domestic servant in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

before retiring home to Mississippi in 1968. She quilted in the evenings when she worked full-time. Warner used color with personal meanings attached: red, for example, meant anger or violence to Warner, and she considered it a color to use carefully. Her compositions have been linked to West African art, and to the "improvisational aesthetic" of jazz. In 1977, director

William R. Ferris William Reynolds Ferris (born February 5, 1942) is an American author and scholar and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. With Judy Peiser he co-founded the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee; he was the fou ...

featured Warner in the documentary film "Four Women Artists," produced by the

Center for Southern Folklore The Center for Southern Folklore is an American non-profit cultural organization based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1972 by William Ferris and Judy Peiser, its mission is "to preserve, defend, protect and promote the music, culture, arts, ...

, as one of the four Mississippi women in the title, along with writer Eudora Welty, painter Theora Hamblett, and embroiderer

Ethel Wright Mohamed Ethel Wright Mohamed (October 13, 1906 – February 15, 1992) was an American artist, best known for her embroidered scenes of country life. She is sometimes compared to " Grandma Moses," both for her folk art style of illustration and her late ...

. In 1983, she was honored with a Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal life and legacy

Warner was married five times, with Sam Warner as her last husband. Warner died in March 1983, age 82. Her quilts continue to be displayed in museums, usually in group shows about African-American folk art. Her niece

Sarah Mary Taylor Sarah Mary Taylor (August 12, 1916 – 2000) was an African American quiltmaker from Mississippi whose work attracted interest in the 1970s. Life Sarah Mary Taylor was born on August 12, 1916 in Anding, Mississippi. She learned quilting from he ...

also made quilts that were favored by art collectors. A song by Louisiana folksinger Kevin Gordon, titled "Pecolia's Star," is about Warner's quilts. Poet

Sandra McPherson Sandra Jean McPherson (born August 2, 1943) is an American poet. Born in San Jose, California, McPherson received her B.A. at San José State University, and studied at the University of Washington, with Elizabeth Bishop and David Wagoner. She c ...

included a poem named "Holy Woman: Pecolia Warner" in her collection, ''The God of Indeterminacy: Poems''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Pecolia American artisans 1901 births 1983 deaths People from Bentonia, Mississippi Quilters People from Yazoo City, Mississippi