Flower Garden, #1

Artist Elizabeth Talford Scott (American, 1916 - 2011)

Place of OriginAmerica

Date1989

Dimensions55 × 55 in. (139.7 × 139.7 cm)

MediumFabric, mixed media

ClassificationTextiles and Fiber

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

2021.34

Not on View

DescriptionFlower Garden #1 is an oval polychrome trapunto (stuffed technique) crazy quilt, embellished with glass and plastic beads, embroidery floss, plastic and metal buttons, metal fittings, plastic fruit netting, and rocks. The quilt is made of various types of fabric in different patterns, weave structures/compositions (like velvet, corduroy, velour, knits, smocking) and fiber content. The piecing is stitched together using a large basting stitch, then the same areas are quilted with embroidery stitches. There are 11 (?) rocks attached by plastic fruit netting to the center area of the quilt that are further embellished with fabric, beading, and buttons. Both the visual motifs on individual fragments and the overall composition—a mass of colorful shapes “growing” like wildflowers—connect to the title’s reference to a garden.

Published ReferencesNancy Princenthal, "Inspired by Harriet Tubman, an artist take glass to extremes," New York Times, January 4, 2018, accessed September 14, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/arts/design/joyce-j-scott-grounds-for-sculpture-harriet-tubman.html.Exhibition HistoryHamilton, NJ, Grounds for Sculpture, Harriet Tubman and Other Truths, January - April 1, 2018.

Miami, FL, Goya Contemporary/Goya-Girl Press, Reality, Times Two: Joyce J. Scott & Elizabeth Talford Scott, Art Miami, 2019.

Baltimore, MD, Goya Contemporary Gallery, Elizabeth Talford Scott: Upside-Downwards, November 20, 2020–January 28, 2021.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Artnet Gallery Network, “She Had an Improvisational Spirit and Rascally Ways’: See the Sculptural Quilts of Pioneering American Textile Artist Elizabeth Talford Scott,” Artnet, Dec. 10, 2020, https://news.artnet.com/partner-content/elizabeth-talford-scott-goya-contemporary. See also Marjorie Charlot, “Elizabeth Talford Scott,” Her Storie, Jan. 17, 2017, http://www.herstorie.com/arts/fabric-art/quilters/20th-century-quilters/elizabeth-talford-scott/. See also John Dorsey, “The fabric of memory Elizabeth Talford Scott’s quilts teem with history, emotion and art,” The Baltimore Sun, Jan. 18, 1998, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-01-18-1998018055-story.html. See also “Elizabeth Talford Scott,” Goya Contemporary, accessed July 16, 2021, http://goyacontemporary.com/artist-listing/elizabeth-talford-scott. Elizabeth Talford Scott: Upside-Downwards (Baltimore: Goya Contemporary, Goya-Girl Press, 2020), 23. See also Lauren LaRocca, “Joyce Scott Mother-Daughter Show Opens at the BMA), Baltimore Magazine, May 15, 2019, https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/joyce-scott-mother-daughter-show-opens-at-the-bma/.