/Annie Y. Dubois
Annie DuBois
Frontline
Inspired by: Robert Adams, Bulldozed Slash Winslow Homer, Gathering Berries
cotton fabric and fabric reactive dye
34″ x 25″
2023
Appliqué is ornamental needlework where pieces of fabric are sewn over others to create an image. There are 54 pieces in Frontline. My work begins with someone else’s ideas of colors and shapes, and gives them new meanings. Sometimes, a print simply imposes itself, as did this eerie black and white background. Predictably, an initial sketch rarely survives a trip to the fabric store. My aim here is to capture the positive energy in Bulldozed Slash, where new growth rises defiantly, and in the profusion, movement, and youth of Gathering Berries. Many more forests have been ravaged since Adams took the photograph; there may be condos where Homer’s children picked berries. The world we are leaving for future generations is not the world we inherited. Our planet’s hope now rests with young people of the future, but they will need heroes, strong, determined, unconventional, like the young human in Frontline.
Annie Dubois
Turning Point
Textile, hand-stitched appliqué.
19″ x 32″
2023
When it isn’t purely decorative or functional, textile art often tells a story. The narrative has a beginning and an end. In Turning Point, the narrative is in progress. It pictures a moment in the story of people who came close enough to the edge that they had to uproot their families leaving everything behind except for what they can wear and carry. They could be anyone, be anywhere. Life before stopped being viable, the now is precipitous, and what will be is built on hope.
Annie Dubois
The Blue Ladle
Inspired by: Unknown Artist, English Teapot Charles “Teenie” Harris, Cotton Candy Booth
acrylic on plywood
9″ x 24″
2024
The gesture of hands ladling and reaching for food mostly evokes institutional or charity meals. The long stem establishes a physical distance; otherness is inherent to the gesture and the setting. But in our Andaluz village, where multiple generations randomly gather at her kitchen table and must be fed, the matriarch holds the ladle low on the stem. The utilitarian utensil becomes a vehicle for nurturing and togetherness.