My Muse

I really believe in the special powers of a Muse. As far as we have been told, the idea of a muse started in Classical European Mythology. In Greek and Roman Mythology each of the nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, over the arts and sciences. It is hard for me to believe that African people (the oldest people on the planet) never thought of or had the notion of a power that governed the creative acts first.

I liked this definition better: a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist. This must be what the Yoruba people call Osun. A personified force! That is what African stories are full of the personification of inanimate objects. We often find many ideas that the Classical Europeans came up with were really appropriated from African cultures and I strongly believe that this is one of those borrowed ideas.

If there are numerous paintings and drawings of Olga, who served as Picasso’s muse for many years, then we must have had our own muses that survived in pictures somewhere, but history has failed to say so.

So, with all that said, I want to introduce my new series that I simply call “Muses”. I have O.V. Brantley to thank for the idea. The Atlanta Quilt Festival is celebrating 10 years of beautiful quilts and workshops. We were all asked to create a 10″x10″ work of art to commemorate the milestone. I mumbled to myself and contested to O.V. I never thought I would work so small, but I tried it and liked it.

I decided on several kinds of muses. Some of them are taken from the ideas in the book – “The Women Who Fly”, while others were taken from the long haired ladies of the book – “Scrap Easy.” They are all feisty with a lot of energy to give. Each little quilt has it’s own detailed applique, special embellishment and it’s own personality.