Interpretation of Tradition

The “Americana Quilt” series began in 2020 as a response to the Black Lives Matter protests as the Covid-19 pandemic spread. While investigating the role of American women in Civil Rights, Anti-Slavery, and Suffrage movements, Regina Jestrow discovered quilts were used to further these causes as a means of storytelling, education, record-keeping, fundraising, and display as protest banners. Quilts have become record-keeping documents incorporating cultural influences and changes in time.

Considering the traditions of quilters, Jestrow utilizes scraps from clothing, combined with new fabrics. Textiles include corduroy, men's shirting fabric, neopine, denim, and smooth cotton. Alongside these textiles, are fabrics Jestrow creates with natural dyes with ingredients from around her home studio. She combines rust from oxidizing nuts, bolts, and screws saved from an old family barn, with plant materials from her kitchen and garden to create a range of lightfast colors. The colors of the “Americana Quilts” are of varied flesh tones representative of the American population and our combined histories. Alongside the skin tones are the colors and textures of the American landscape. Various textures are created employing traditional shibori and tie-dyeing techniques.

Jestrow reimagines and manipulate historical quilt patterns by applying improvisation creating a free-flowing movement with their geometry. Each quilt incorporates a mix of different cultural traditions. Some of the geometric patterns originate from Native American weavings, Amish quilts, and African American narrative quilt traditions.

The presentation of this exhibition is due to the generous support of the Americana Quilt series by The Ellies, Miami’s visual arts award, presented by Oolite Arts.

Reception: May 14, 2022 from 6 - 9pm

Regina Jestrow - Americana Quilt 67

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