The textile artist's works are now up as part of her exhibit 'Go Down to the River and Talk to 'JAH'' at the Boston Public Library's Hyde Park branch, on view through June 29.
“Still Life with Ancestor Figure" by Susan Thompson on display at the Hyde Park branch of the Boston Public Library. sits in front of her industrial Singer sewing machine. The balance wheel whirs as she runs a piece of beige fabric through.
"You can do so much with manipulating fabric," she says."I can fold it, I can twist it, I can dye it, I can paint it, I can sew it. I can do a lot with textiles and that's what I do, all of those things."" at the Boston Public Library's Hyde Park branch, on view through June 29. The exhibit is comprised of five quilts, two fabric masks and one quilted book."'Go Down to the River and Talk To Jah' was a Jamaican gospel song that I heard a long time ago," Thompson says."The picture in my head of going down to the river and praying and communing with God, it was just a very powerful image for me.""Everyone I used to know as a child, they're now ancestors, so they're very important to me," she says.
Eventually, Thompson's mentor, Allan Rohan Crite, encouraged her to take a deeper dive into what would become her artistic practice."I would say, 'Everybody else, they've already finished art school. They're already doing what they do in their career,'" Thompson recalls."And he would say, 'Well, Grandma Moses didn't start until she was in her 70s. So it's never too late.
Indigo also plays a significant role in her practice and is used to stain fabrics a rich, distinctive blue."That's a power color for me," says Thompson."Our ancestors grew that indigo in Louisiana." Thompson often uses indigo in her ancestor quilts, forging a link between the ancestors she knows and the ones she doesn't.
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