New Edna Patterson-Petty fabric art exhibit at Sheldon Galleries
By Roscoe Crenshaw
For the St. Louis American
Her visual rhythms resonate in jazz quilts and fabric art, addressing racism, domestic violence and the joy of children, and they have earned East St. Louis native Edna Patterson-Petty considerable recognition.
Her work has been exhibited at the Vaughn Cultural Center, the Saint Louis
University Art Galleries, at venues in New York, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Senegal, West Africa and even at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan.
Her latest show, Edna Patterson-Petty: The Jazz Quilts, opened Saturday at the History of Jazz Gallery at the Sheldon Art Galleries. It is full of dazzling collisons of sequins, swatches, photographs, beads and other surprises. Her compositions are alternatively abstract and figurative, with mesmerizing explosions of textural and tonal brilliance.
“You never know what will spark a person,” Edna says of the creative process. “Start with what you have n a favorite recipe, a story, children’s pictures n and create from there.”
Her creations began in childhood, when Edna helped her mom with sewing, making use of an assortment of recycled clothing around the house. In high school home economics, both cooking and sewing courses were offered. “Since I had learned how to cook very early,” she said, “I took sewing n all four levels.” She learned how to make her own clothing but soon tired of the limitations of pragmatic stitching.
At age 34, she returned to school at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. While raising four babies, she earned an undergraduate degree in fabric art then went on to earn master’s degrees in fabric art and art therapy.
“School exposed me to a lot of things I did not know,” she says. “It doesn’t give you a talent, it just enhances that talent.”
In 1987, her son was killed, and her talents provided a desperately needed release, as well as a means of paying tribute. “That made me dive into my art more passionately,” she says. “Had it not been for the outlets of art and art therapy, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”
Now, Edna conducts workshops for both kids and adults and practices art therapy at BJC, the JJK Center and on the SIU Edwardsville and East St. Louis campuses. A couple of years ago, she completed a challenging class for youngsters at the Community Women Against Hardship Family Support Center.
This weaver of dreams finds her greatest supporter in her husband, Reginald Petty. A former Peace Corps deputy director, he served a total of 15 years in four different African countries. Their East Side abode is a virtual museum of African artifacts, some coveted by the Smithsonian Institute.
The Pettys are good friends of East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene B. Redmond. Some years back, Edna designed a gorgeous statuette, an image of a woman’s head adorned with pearls, buttons and caraway seeds. She presented it to the bard, and, as he reports, author Terry McMillan offered him $50,000 to part with it. He politely declined.
“Edna Patterson-Petty: The Jazz Quilts” will be on display at the History of Jazz Gallery in the Sheldon Arts Gallery, 3648 Washington Blvd. through September 10.
