Applique Quilt 1938

Suzanne Roy’s quilt, made sometime between 1855 and 1995, is a really interesting patchwork of images. The palette is fairly limited—reds, greens and creams—but oh my god, the imagination! When I look at this, I think about how much time Roy must have spent carefully choosing and cutting each shape. I can just imagine her sitting there, puzzling over each element. The quilt is comprised of all these tiny little stories. Like, what about the cup of tea? What about the pineapple, or the lyre? It's like a whole world! I love to imagine how she chose each one and what they mean to her. In this way, the quilt reminds me of the work of Rosie Lee Tompkins, where each quilt is a way of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world. Tompkins and Roy speak to each other across time. They both show us that art, and life, is about embracing ambiguity.