Teresa Barkley – Dreams
Photo credit: Rachael Dorr
Size: 40” x 40”
Date: 2019
Materials: Cotton, vintage corn meal sack, flag cigarette silks (circa 1912)
Techniques: Machine pieced, hand appliqued, hand quilted
Artist Statement: “The stuff that dreams are made of” – This is how Humphrey Bogart’s character describes a sought-after black bird statue in the 1941 movie, The Maltese Falcon. Characters in the movie believe that a jewel-encrusted surface is hidden under the bird’s plain black exterior. Like scenes from a dream, my childhood memory of this movie is pieced together with thoughts of the DREAM Act and the “American Dream.” The multi-national flags suggest that the dreams of generations of immigrants are set into the American flag, as if they were gems set in a piece of jewelry.
