Can the New Year bring new attitudes?

The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week

I'd like to wrap up our month-long focus on homelessness in the Quotes of the Week with some thoughts about the future: specifically, the generation that is growing up homeless right now. What does homelessness do to a child? It's devastating. And the ill-effects can last for decades. Even a lifetime. Complacency isn't an option.

Can we do a reset? I fear it's an uphill battle. But another year is coming, a whole season of fresh starts and new beginnings. Can we have hope?

Better to ask: can we dare (or bear) not to have hope?

IMAGES: Many thanks to StoreMyPic for the quote image from Cyndi Lauper about youth homelessness; to MoreFamousQuotes, for more of the above; and to Stephanie Guzman's Pinterest board for the "The Greatest Cruelty" (unattributed) quote-image.

What are the challenges smallholders face, and how can we help?

The Artdog Image(s) of Interest

Most of December's Images of Interest have focused, using quotes from several sources and infographics from Bayer, on the massive economic importance of smallholder farmers worldwide.

Smallholder farms are tiny, only two hectares or less, yet in many places they provide the majority of their communities' food. They'll face increasing challenges in the future, to keep up with demand. Even as governments, large corporations, and NGOs seek ways to help them, it's vital that we listen to them, and include them in any "solutions" we try to apply.

IMAGES: Many thanks to DoubleQuotes, for the quote from Bill Gates, and to Bayer for the infographic on challenges faced by smallholder farmers.

Every Family is Holy

The Artdog Quote of the Week

A new display outside of @CCCathedralIndy is bringing awareness to the “zero tolerance” immigration policy. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are now in “ICE detention.” #EveryFamilyisHoly #CadaFamiliaEsSagrada pic.twitter.com/jgtmEvH6Sf

— Ryan Liggett (@RyanLiggettNews) July 3, 2018

The "quote" is a little harder to see in this week's Quote of the Week. It is "Every Family is Holy," the theme of a campaign created last summer by Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, IN (Vice President Pence's home state).

Read the Statement from our Dean and Rector, Steve Carlsen. The Holy Family, held in detention, is now on the Cathedral’s lawn facing Monument Circle. #EveryFamilyIsHoly https://t.co/Sd5ZJ5saB1 pic.twitter.com/5bEAtMAJh1

— CCC Indy (@CCCathedralIndy) July 3, 2018

The Trump Administration may no longer be separating families and caging children, but it doesn't hurt to remember that the Christmas story in the Bible tells us Mary and Joseph (who may or may not have been poor, although pastors all through my life have made a point of emphasizing that they were) had to go pay taxes and register, then couldn't find any safe place to stay but a barn. That can't have been their most positive family story to share.

The Flight into Egypt by Giotto di Bondone (1304–06, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua) By © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro /, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52228577

After that, on reliable intelligence, they fled in terror to Egypt from persecution. Again, those with a political agenda will point out that they weren't technically refugees, in part because no such definition existed at the time. However, if you apply today's definition they certainly were.

My point in bringing all of this up for today's Christmas Eve post is deeply grounded in my own Christian faith (so be warned). No matter how hard you proof-text, it's really hard to dance around the fact that today's so-called Christian Right often espouses harsh, judgmental, and all-too-frequently-racist positions, in stark opposition to the message of inclusion that Jesus taught. You have every right to disagree with me, but you're not going to change my mind on this. And I--thanks to the First Amendment--have every right to say something about it.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Ryan Liggett's Twitter post for the first embedded Twitter image in this post, and to Christ Church Cathedral of Indianapolis's Twitter post, for the second. Giotto's Flight into Egypt is courtesy of Wikipedia and José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro. Many thanks to all!

Winter's joy

The Artdog Image of Interest

In honor of the first day of winter . . .

To my friends in the Southern Hemisphere: I don't wanna hear about it.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Imgflip and Pinterest for this image.

Interruptions

I've been trying to wrap up my final draft and get it to the last editor since the beginning of December. My plans were clear, my goals laid out with pristine exactitude.

Yeah, that.

The details--although I'm sweating them currently--don't really matter to the big picture. What does matter is that at any moment something else WILL demand my attention. So instead of a long, wordy post I thought today I'd offer a handful of thoughts on interruptions.

As a former teacher, I can relate--although the interruptions during my classroom presentations or discussions were almost as often announcements on the intercom, or calls from the office on the classroom phone, as they were interruptions by students.

This topic yielded a multitude of cartoons and memes from office settings, medical, legal, and other fields. I certainly don't feel alone in my plight. If you share it, you have my heartfelt commiseration. If you live blissfully free of interruptions, just wait.

You'll get yours, soon enough.

IMAGES: Many thanks to QuoteFancy, for the Allen Saunders quote-image; to the Teaching in Blue Jeans Facebook page, via Charlotte Jackson's Pinterest board, for the guidance on when classroom interruptions are okay; to Comforting Quotes for the observation by French writer Andre Maurois; and to Kjersti Berg via SlidePlayer, for the "interruptions gestalt" image, though I couldn't immediately confirm the $$ estimate.

What is poverty, and what should we think of the poor?

The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week

We celebrated Human Rights Day last week, but human rights should be part of our values every day, all year long. As noted in last week's quote, housing is listed in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as one of the fundamentals. Yet homelessness is a widespread phenomenon, both in the USA and around the world.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Nyamnyam via Pinterest, for the quote-image from Bryan Stevenson. Unfortunately, Nyamnyam.mobi doesn't seem to exist anymore. I did find a Nyamnyam.net that appears to come from a similar place philosophically. You might enjoy their page. Many thanks also to QuoteHD (also here), for the Sheila McKechnie quote-image (see also her foundation), and to Liberals are Cool via Summer Rain, for the "Poverty is not a lack of character" quote-image.

Empowering Smallholder Women

The Artdog Image of Interest

December's focus for my Images of Interest is smallholder farmers, a vitally important sector of the economy across the world. Last week's Image focused on "The Smallholder Effect." This week's focus is women smallholder farmers.

As microlenders have discovered, women are often extremely responsible businesspersons. This Bayer infographic further explores their role and importance.

IMAGES: Many thanks to AZ Quotes, for the Judith Rodin quote about empowering African women, and to Bayer, for the infographic on Women in Smallholder Agriculture.

Universal human rights

The Artdog Quote of the Week

Yesterday was Human Rights Day, when this post was originally supposed to go live (many apologies!). But human rights are important every day. My theme for the December Quotes is homelessness. I think this excerpt from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, ratified 70 years ago in 1948, is fittingly consistent with that theme.

IMAGE: I created today's image. The background photo is one I took last September in Dallas, TX; the words, as credited, are from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25(1). Please feel free to use the quote image if you wish, but kindly include an attribution to me (Jan S. Gephardt) as the creator and a link back to this post. Thanks!

Small but mightily important

The Artdog Images of Interest

During my research last month into food insecurity, I discovered the importance of what are called "smallholder" farmers. I thought you might enjoy a deeper look into these essential participants in their local economies.

A "smallholder" farm covers two hectares or less of land. That defines more than 475 million farms throughout the world. How much land is that?





It's not a lot of land. This means they need to become more and more efficient, if they are to feed a growing number of hungry mouths as we move into the future. Many large corporations have begun to take notice.

As the Starbucks video above points out, they produce about 80% of the world's coffee--and reportedly are the source of more than 90% of the rice production in Tanzania, a reflection of their importance as food producers.

Another large corporation, Bayer, has produced a series of infographics about their work with smallholders.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Crop Life, for the illustrated quote from James D. Dargie; to Starbucks for the video about the size of a hectare; and to Bayer for the infographic on the "Smallholder Effect."

Service

Like many people around the world, I was touched by this photo of President George H. W. Bush's service dog Sully by his casket this weekend.

The late President George H.W. Bush's service dog Sully helped him with "a list that's two pages long" of tasks, after his wife Barbara passed away earlier this year. Photo by Evan Sisley.

I've written about service animals repeatedly on this blog, including in a series of Images of Interest in January 2017, the first of which is here. Several species can be taught to perform a variety of helpful tasks, including monkeys and miniature horses, but the vast majority of service animals (as opposed to emotional support animals or ESAs), and the ones most clearly identified as such in the ADA language, are dogs.

Regulatory language established under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, says "service animals must be individually trained to do work or carry out tasks" on behalf of the disabled person. The original language did not specify acceptable species, but currently only dogs are recognized as service animals under Title II and Title III, but an exception is made for miniature horses in some cases.

What are they "individually trained" to do? Here's a video that offers a sampling of three major kinds of service training, as guide dogs, hearing dogs, and mobility dogs:



However, those three specialty areas are only the beginning. They can be trained to do all sorts of things.

There has, of course, been controversy recently about emotional support animals traveling and having access to facilities from which pets are banned, particularly in the wake of an incident when a woman attempted to bring a "comfort peacock" on a United flight. In October 2018, Southwest Airlines limited acceptable species to dogs, cats, and miniature horses. 

Miniature horses mostly appear to be used as guide animals for the blind. Here's an overview with several good pictures, including a situation that occurred in a devout Muslim family. Their culture considers dogs to be unclean animals, and therefore not acceptable in the home--but horses are okay. I also found a rather fuzzy 2009 video from The Rachael Ray Show (they're worrying about ADA regulations that ultimately did include guide horses) but Ann Edie and Panda, the guide horse Rachael Ray featured, are also featured in a much clearer video from 2017.


No, cats can't be service animals under ADA regulations (after all cats have staff. They aren't servants themselves! That would be a perversion of nature. Right?). But apparently they can be ESAs, according to Southwest. Currently banned are all other animals, including ferrets, pigs, parrots, monkeys, and, yes, peacocks.

If you're wondering what will become of Sully, who was trained by America's VetDogs, the family and American VetDogs has announced that "Sully will be joining the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s Facility Dog Program." As Kathleen Curthoys put it in her Military Times article, "Sully will work with other dogs assisting with physical and occupational therapy to wounded soldiers and active-duty personnel during their recovery at Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland." 

IMAGES: Many thanks to Military Times, for Evan Sisley's photo of Sully by his late master's casket, to Omni Military Loans for the video about service dogs, and to All 4 for the video about Panda the guide horse.

No accident

The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week

I recently realized that I've talked about habitat loss several times this year on this blog, but always in the context of plants and animals in the environment, never about humans losing their homes, except in the context of natural disasters.

But there's an ongoing, not-too-dramatic-looking but heartbreaking and needless disaster unfolding in our country. Not the addiction epidemic, although it's related. It's a crisis of homelessness.

I'll focus mainly on the US for my thoughts about homelessness in my December Quotes of the Week, because that's a political system and society in which I participate. But it's a global problem that all too few people are thinking about or addressing.

It's time we started improving our record. Practical steps:
(1) Educate yourself. Start on the Internet but don't stop there.
(2) Contribute as you can to a local, well-run homeless shelter or food bank.
(3) Educate others. Post, tweet, talk, participate.
(4) Advocate for change. Write, call, or otherwise communicate to local, state, and national government that you care about this issue!

IMAGES: Many thanks to Quote Addicts, via Joyce Naren's Pinterest board , for the Linda Lingle quote-image; to UNDP (the United Nations Development Program) and the Summer Rain website, for the Nelson Mandela quote-image; and once again to Summer Rain for the Mahatma Gandhi quote-image.

Let there be light!

This morning . . . 

The first Sunday of Advent is when we light the "Hope" candle. Image by Erika Sanborne.

This evening . . . 

The first evening of Hanukkah, in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim. Photo by Sebi Berens, taken 12/24/2016.

Whatever your heritage, may your winter nights be filled with the light of love.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Rachael A. Keefe, whose "Bidding Prayer for the First Sunday of Advent - Hope" offers a lovely little prayer litany for those who might like one for the occasion, for the "Hope" Advent image by Erika Sanborne; and to Jewish News Syndicate and photographer Sebi Berens, for the First Night of Hanukkah photo.

Desert- and Swamp-busters: Community Gardens

The Artdog Image of Interest

Last week's Image of Interest focused on the problem of food deserts and food swamps. This week, I'd like to focus on one of the solutions that can be used to combat them: the growing movement to create and cultivate--in ALL senses of the word--community gardens.

Community gardens are becoming increasingly popular for more very good reasons. Beyond helping lower-income communities stretch their food budgets and gain access to healthy food, which would be enough in itself, they:

Make good use of previously-vacant (often trash-plagued) plots of land. This is efficient, fights blight, and discourages crime.

Teach people of all ages practical skills they can use to improve their lives. This is why they're an outstanding project for schools.

Bring communities together, because there's nothing like gardening side-by-side to promote people talking with each other, creating friendships, and sharing ideas or skills.

Yes, I know it's getting on toward winter in the Northern Hemisphere. But winter is the time to PLAN gardens. The infographic below, which promotes the annual Project Orange Thumb, sponsored by Fiskars, offers good starter tips. If you think you'd like to apply for Project Orange Thumb, the next call for applications probably will go out in January.





IMAGES: Many thanks to Suburban Stone Age, via Pinterest, for the image-with-quote about tomatoes, and to Fiskars' Project Orange Thumb, for the infographic about community gardening. 

Design fiction and science fiction

Have you ever heard of design fiction? WALDENLABS' John Robb explains it this way: "Design fiction is a way for designers and artists to visually depict the future in inspiring ways. Typically, design fiction is associated with how technology will change our future." But in my opinion he misses an important aspect of design fiction with this definition.

Robb offers examples of companies that are developing products, and have put together videos to show how those products might be used in the future. He suggested that one by Corning, "A Day Made of Glass," is an excellent example. Check it out here:



It was made in 2011, but it still looks pretty futuristic (except in a few of the ways that women are portrayed--did you catch them? Some are subtle, others quite blatant). What struck me most forcibly however, was how old that "art form" of design fiction by companies making products really is, and how it actually misses the mark if you want to think of it as "art."

Robb conflates corporate "design fiction" with science fiction, pointing to Star Trek's best-known innovations, communicators (leading to the development of cell phones), and glass computers (later realized as touchscreens). SF readers need not look far to point out other innovations first portrayed in science fiction.

Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and his shipmates used an inspiring computer unlike anything the 1960s had seen before. Star Trek wasn't created to sell computers (or cell phones), however.

But corporate design fiction is created for different reasons from those that give birth to science fiction. If you followed my October Images of Interest, you saw several examples of corporate design fiction, especially in regard to kitchens, cars, and houses. They present fascinating glimpses, but they were made primarily as marketing tools, to create brand identity and to sell the companies' products of that day, by association with their futuristic visions.

Science fiction offers a viewpoint, too, of course. Each individual science fiction writer has developed his or her own unique viewpoints (yes, often more than one). But science fiction is not primarily designed to preach, teach, or sell products.

Our wheelhouse, we must always remember, is to shine a light on new thoughts, ideas, and potential problems . . . and also always to entertain, beguile, and if possible, enrich our readers' lives. If those technological wonders we invent in the course of doing that become real someday, well, that's icing on the cake.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Corning via YouTube, for the "A Day Made of Glass" video, and to Subspace Communique for the photo of Mr. Spock and his computer.

Mindfulnes is key

The Artdog Quote of the Week

If ever there was a good argument for staying alert and practicing mindfulness, this is a great one. Whyte has focused a spotlight on an important principle of the human experience.

My Quotes of the Week during the past three Mondays have focused on maintaining an attitude of hope and gratitude in the face of adversity. It's hard to do, but it's important work, both in our personal lives and in the public discourse. I'm confident that, unfortunately, we'll get plenty more practice as time goes forward.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Flowing Free for this quote from David Whyte. 

Deserts and Swamps: a closer look at food insecurity

The Artdog Image of Interest

Do you know what a food desert is? What about a food swamp? Do you live near one?

They exist in all kinds of places, including rural areas, where you really wouldn't expect them--but viewing an area in terms of food deserts and food swamps is a way to key in on some root causes of food insecurity.

We can join in the effort to fight this trend. First, support community gardens, and efforts to bring farmers markets to low-income areas near you. A quick Internet-search should offer local options.

Also, pay attention to how poverty-stricken communities in your area are treated. I really hope you'll encourage your civic leaders to remember that poor people are people. People with rights, like everyone else. It's a myth that most are lazy or poor because they made bad choices. Most people who are born into poverty must overcome huge obstacles to climb out of it.

Another good way to fight food deserts and swamps is to advocate for programs such as SNAP, the US government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is part of the Farm Bill, renewed every five years (including now!).

And in the meantime, contribute to local food banks. Again, they're only an Internet search away.

This infographic may be focused on a particular region, but it's instructive as an example in a broader sense, offering a snapshot of the problem's impact.

IMAGES: Many thanks to AZ Quotes for the quote image featuring author Michael Pollan, and to Brown is the New Pink blog, for passing along the infographic on food deserts and swamps.

In search of Thanksgiving peace

That's the point of Thanksgiving, isn't it? To break bread together, to join with each other over a table of plenty (or at least, we hope, "enough"), to mend fences, to heal wounds, and to come together.

But we live in a rough time. Post-election, wounds are still raw. Gains and losses are still bitter. And many peoples' Thanksgivings will be times of strife, if we're not careful. So, then, what to do?

I'd hope that we'll seek the more excellent way (I Corinthians 12:31), or in other words, the way of love. I started this month with All Saints and All Souls Day references to honoring our ancestors. Yet for many younger people the necessity of dealing with still-living ancestors and/or elders can become quite a trial.

The reverse quite often is true, too. Older people may have little patience with the things their younger family members value. This is mostly because they don't understand them, and may even be afraid of them. But they, too, need to remember the way of love.

Both sides seem all too short on respect for the other, too much of the time. But the way of love is a way of respect. It's an attitude that sets aside the assumptions of failings and seeks out, then abides in the places of agreement. A good start is simply to listen. To seek to hear, more than to be heard.

Only by setting part of our pride, our sense of controlling the situation, and our drive to force others to agree with us, do we find a place of mutual acceptance and peace. It behooves us to remember Wayne Dyer's thought.

Only when we're willing to step back from conflict can we truly be at peace with each other. Unfortunately, the hosts too often have to intervene with "rules of conduct in our house." One of my Beloved's elders banished all talk of religion and politics from her household on Thanksgiving. It worked, because they all respected Grandma.

But however we do it, we must remember and honor the soul-work of the table, the giving work of the cook(s), and the purpose of this day.

All of us have more to be thankful for than we have reasons to despise each other. Let us strive to remember that, and to act on it.

IMAGES: Many thanks to The Way International for the "Breaking Bread Together" graphic; to Oprah's Pinterest page, for the quote-image from Iyanla Vanzant; to Quotemaster, for both the quotes from Gertrude Stein and from Gloria Steinem; to QuotePixel for the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi; to Brainy Quote for the wisdom from Wayne Dyer; and to the World Food Program USA on Pinterest, via World Vision and its HungerFree initiative for the Laurie Colwin quote. Many thanks to all of them!

Where's your focus?

The Artdog Quote of the Week

It's been shown that optimists tend to be healthier and live longer than pessimists. But are optimists born, or do they cultivate their attitude? If one is a pessimist "by nature," is that person doomed?

No, in fact. Resistance to pessimistic thoughts is not futile. Resiliency can be learned. It doesn't matter how horrible you think things are, bright spots exist. Look for them. Cultivate them. Foster positive things. Where life persists, hope is possible, but it depends on all of us and our choices.

It ultimately comes down to a basic choice: hope or despair. Where would you rather focus? Which would you rather pursue?

IMAGES: Many thanks to Kush and Wizdom's Tumblr, for this quote image.

Banned! Too political, they said.

The Artdog Image of Interest

Normally when we think of a banned book or other communication, we assume it's considered pornographic or inflammatory. And of course we immediately become curious, if we're most people.

But . . . they banned a supermarket chain's Christmas ad, designed for children, as "too political" to broadcast in the UK.

Say what?

This week's Image of Interest is a video whose story kind of begs for me to pass it on. Yes, it's designed for kids, and yes, it does make a strong point. Whether or not that point is a dangerous or political point, I'll let you decide. It just might be the most adorable banned video you'll ever see.





You see, the point isn't about a political party or a politician. It doesn't consist of hate speech, and it's not inciting anyone to rise up in rebellion against the government. It's not attempting to inhibit any unalienable human rights.

It's about deforestation and habitat loss due to palm oil cultivation and production, and it's also about orangutans, topics I've addressed on this blog within recent months. What it does have the audacity to do is point out a problem that is widely acknowledged in scientific and environmental circles, and largely ignored or unknown by the general public.

I consider it my honor and privilege to spread this message as far as my humble little blog can spread it. It appears that lots of others feel the same way I did. The world's caring people need to learn about, and pay more attention to this problem, before all the Pongo Faces are gone forever.

IMAGE/VIDEO: Many thanks to Iceland Foods, Greenpeace, Australia's The New Daily, and YouTube, for access to this banned video.

Influences: the quilts and quilters of Gee's Bend

I remember when my sister, the quilter in the family, first showed me pictures of several quilts from Gee's Bend at some point in the mid-2000s. They were strikingly beautiful, and unlike anything I'd seen before. Lots of other people thought so, too, when they were first exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2002.

Many people were astounded and delighted when they got their first looks at the now-famous Gee's Bend quilts. In 2006 they were featured on United States postage stamps.

Like many people, I was fascinated by the dynamic asymmetry of these designs, such a different approach to the formal balance found in most traditional quilt patterns.

If you've grown up with quilts as I have, the first thing that leaps to mind when someone says "patchwork quilt" is the formal balance of traditional patterns such as the Six-Pointed Star Medallion Quilt (2017) from Catbird Quilts at left, or the Hoedown grid quilt by Codysnana, from The Spruce Crafts at right.

We artists and art lovers seek and create bridges to meaning by linking what we know to things we have not previously seen. Thus, I understand the comparisons to the work of Color Field artists such as Barnett Newman, or artists associated with Geometric Abstraction, such as Frank Stella or Josef Albers, by art critics commenting on the earliest shows. They had few other points of reference in their universe (not being conversant with West African textiles, apparently).

They could've Googled it: this screen grab shows the results of a Google Image Search for "West African Textiles."

Of course, an argument can be and has been made that, particularly in the white-male-dominated world of the New York art scene in the early "uh-ohs" (well pre-#MeToo) there were more than a few people flabbergasted that impoverished, isolated black women could actually come up with such stunning and masterful designs, all by themselves.

Well, suck it up, guys. White men didn't invent ALL the good things after all. (Truth be told, there are those who will point out that they actually didn't even invent as many of those good things as they claim . . . but that's a whole 'nother blog post).

Bottom line: the women of Gee's Bend are the real deal, even if they didn't go to art school or study "the masters." But it's also true that they didn't get into the Whitney, and thereby onto the world stage, all by themselves.

They got there through the efforts of a white man from Atlanta, named William "Bill" Arnett, and as with all help from white men, the longer one looks at his work and treatment of the outsider artists he discovered, the more questions arise. There are those who intimate or outright claim exploitation. Certainly, the licensing of those images for postage stamps didn't filter back to Gee's Bend, for one example among many.

Bill Arnett, of course, has his own version of events. And you certainly can't say he didn't have a nose for talent. Not only did he discover and share the Gee's Bend quilts with the world, but lightning struck at least twice. He's also the man who discovered Thornton Dial and mentored him into world-class artist scene. Arnett continues to champion the cause of African art, with his Souls Grown Deep Foundation.

No matter who paid for what, licensed what, or what settlements were reached in the aftermath, one thing we must say is that, whatever their influences, the quilters of Gee's Bend have become influential in their own right. They only came to the attention of the world in 2002, so we still don't even yet know how or what or where their influence will go, but already they've become established deep in the aesthetic consciousness of contemporary African American art. Younger African American artists know Gee's Bend is a place where their roots run deep.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018, the official portrait of the former First Lady, by Amy Sherald.

At left, the "Runway version" of the Milly dress by Michelle Smith; at right, a variety of Gee's Bend quilt designs.

For one example, a younger Amy Sherald, whose work I profiled last spring, and who was recently chosen to create the official portrait of Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery, attended that 2002 Whitney show. Sherald says part of the reason she chose to use the Michelle Smith-designed Milly dress for the portrait was the way it reminded her of the Gee's Bend quilts.

I predict that the echoes of influence aren't finished reverberating through generations (and artworks) to come.

IMAGES: Many thanks to The Textile Research Centre of Leiden, for the montage of Gee's Bend quilt postage stamp designs; to Catbird Quilts, via Pinterest, for the gorgeous Six-Pointed Star Medallion Quilt, and to The Spruce Crafts by Codysnana, via Pinterest, for the photo of the very striking Hoedown pattern grid quilt. The screen grab of West African Textile Patterns is from a Google Image Search. I want to thank the New York Times for the almost-15-minute video "While I Yet Live," which includes comments from the quilters about their history, and lots of images of their wonderful quilts. Finally, I am indebted to Decor Arts Now, for the photo of the Michelle Obama portrait, the Milly dress, and several suggestive quilt patterns. I also want to thank Decor Arts for the photos of the Michelle Obama portrait, as well as the photos regarding the "influence elements" of the Milly dress and a collection of representative Gee's Bend quilt designs.