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 Anding is an unincorporated community located in Yazoo County, Mississippi. Anding is approximately east of Oil City and approximately north of Bentonia. It is the birthplace of quiltmaker Sarah Mary Taylor. Anding has a zip code of 39040. ...

. She learned quilting from her mother Pearlie Posey when she was young. She lived on plantations in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

and worked as a housekeeper, cook, and field hand. Late in her life, Taylor was forced to retire due to her failing health. She then earned income through quilting, using the skirts of dresses to create pieced quilts. Taylor garnered more interest in her

appliqué Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique ...

d quilts after Pecolia Warner's quilts were the subject of

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

professors academic interest in the 1970s. Both Taylor and her mother created quilt and pillow designs that employed red ''Vodun'' doll-like figures. Her ''Mermaid'' quilt (earlier known as ''Rabbit'') is evocative of the

mojo hand ''Mojo Hand'' is an album by the blues musician Lightnin' Hopkins, recorded in 1960 and released on the Fire label in 1962.O'Brien, T. JLightnin' Album of the Week: Week 11 – November 13, 2010accessed November 8, 2018 Reception AllMusic revie ...

, featuring blue hands adjacent to red squares and vodou figures. According to art historian Maude Southwell Wahlman, Taylor "has made numerous quilts that play on the symbolic connotations and aesthetic qualities of the hand image." Wahlman writes that Taylor's ''Cross'' quilt may represent a continuation of the

Kongo cosmogram The cosmogram was a core symbol of the Kongo culture. An ideographic religious symbol, the cosmogram was called ''dikenga dia Kongo'' or ''tendwa kia nza-n' Kongo'' in the KiKongo language. Ethnohistorical sources and material culture demonstrate ...

, a

Kongo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

religious symbol. Taylor's quilts also employ incongruous and clashing color combinations. She was commissioned to make a hand quilt for the film ''

The Color Purple ''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.

''. Both this quilt and an appliquéd word quilt of hers form part of the Ella King Torrey Collection of African American Quilts. Taylor married five times and had one child, Willie, who preceded her in death. She died July 10, 2000. Taylor's quilts have been displayed in

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

, and

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, among other American cities.

Marilyn Nelson Marilyn Nelson (born April 26, 1946) is an American poet, translator, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the former poet laureate of Connecticut, She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry ...

wrote the poem "The Century Quilt" for her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Sarah Mary 1916 births 2000 deaths American artisans Artists from Mississippi People from Yazoo County, Mississippi Quilters 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American artists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American artists