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Plantation Quilt, 1980, by Elizabeth Talford Scott. Fabric with mixed media (beads, sequins, stones, shells, buttons, plastic netting, and found objects), 69 1/2 X 75 in.
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Rocks in Prison, 1994, by Elizabeth Talford Scott. Fabric with mixed media (beads, sequins, stones, shells, buttons, plastic netting, and found objects), 21 x 16 x 1 in.
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Grandfather's Cabin / Noah's Ark, 1993-1996, by Elizabeth Talford Scott. Fabric with mixed media (beads, sequins, stones, shells, buttons, plastic netting, and found objects), 70 X 50 in.
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Medium/Discipline: Crafts
Birthplace: Chester County, South Carolina
Maryland Affiliation: Active while in residence
Subject Headings: Quilts; Afro-American Quilts
Places of Residence: Chester, South Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Black/African-American
Biography: Elizabeth Talford Scott is renowned nationally for her hand-sewn quilt masterpieces that portray community stories, social wisdom and her South Carolina family's sharecropping history. One of thirteen children, she grew up on a Carolina plantation where she worked alongside men, women and children to create quilts that could be bartered for fabric, food staples and services.
Upon her retirement in 1970, Elizabeth Scott was able to devote herself full-time to quilt-making; after this time her quilts took on new shapes, materials and forms, including stones, shells, pine cones, beads, buttons, men's ties and other scraps and objects that held special meaning to her family and friends. The quilts, in effect, became historical records of her memories and her family heritage. Symbols of African and African American healing also became part of her quilt compositions furthering their role as a vehicle for social harmony and community.
Joyce Scott, Elizabeth's daughter, lives with her mother in Baltimore, Maryland. Joyce Scott has become a vital figure in the Baltimore art community for her unique beadwork and her ongoing commitment to supporting artists in the city since the 1970s. Her mother shared the tradition of quilt-making with Joyce as part of their family history. Joyce has incorporated themes about family legacies into her own visual, multi-media and performance art. She describes her mother's quilts as "magic carpets" and "personal hieroglyphics...pictures for people who could not read or write...pictures depicting the catalog of their emotions." (Schoettler, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, p. 288.)
Elizabeth Talford Scott was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her activism and commitment to the women's movement and the arts by the Women's Caucus in 1986. Her work was shown widely and is held in collections across the nation, including the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. A retrospective of her body of work, Eyewinkers, Tumbleturds and Candlebugs: The Art of Elizabeth Talford Scott, featured 45 quilts dating from 1930-1997, was shown at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1999 and curated by George Ciscle. The show traveled to locations throughout the country, including the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA).
Selected References: Hopkins Medical News - Spring/Summer 2001: www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/S01/cnews.html
Stegman, Carolyn B. Women of Achievement in Maryland History (Forestville, MD: Anaconda Press), 2002.
Other Publications: Eyewinkers, Tumbleturds and Candlebugs: The Art of Elizabeth Talford Scott. (Baltimore, MD: Maryland Institute, College of Art), 1998.
Silverman, Robert. "Scott + Scott, Elizabeth Talford Scott and Joyce Scott," American Craft Review, December 1998/January 1999.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Weinberg Building
Single-Artist Exhibitions: Eyewinkers, Tumbleturds and Candlebugs: The Art of Elizabeth Talford Scott. Baltimore, MD, Maryland Institute, College of Art, January 15 through March 1, 1998.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: Baltimore Museum of Art (painting); Maryland Historical Society
Awards: Women's Caucus For Art Lifetime Achievement Award, 1986
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