Head covering c. 20th century

This head covering, now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, must have been made with a lot of love, can you imagine? I see orange dye bleeding softly into the fabric around these gorgeous red mandalas. The anonymous artist was probably thinking about protection, or beauty, or maybe just the sheer joy of pattern-making. I'm drawn to the small gold decorative elements scattered across the fabric. They're not quite symmetrical, are they? It feels so personal, not rigid or mass-produced. You can feel the hand of the maker in every detail. Thinking about it, I'm reminded of the quilts made by the Gee's Bend artists. There is a similar spirit of improvisation, of making something beautiful and meaningful out of simple materials. These objects have power. They hold stories, and transmit a sense of connection across time and cultures.