Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American

 

 

left a legacy which can be described in 2 ways:  wonderfully worked  textiles which represent aspects of her life;

 

 

Cloud Collar Fantasy, mixed media fiber work, 1987. 

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American.  On exhibit at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore in 2024

This is made of a Chinese woman’s robe brought back by the artist’s employer.  From this she made 3 cushions as a gift for that employer; of which this is one.

 

and a second legacy: her daughter, the artist Joyce J.  Scott, born 1948, to whom she bequeathed her skills, creative drive and will to joy. 

 

 

Elizabeth Talford Scott and her daughter, Joyce J. Scott.  Date unknown, before 2011. Photo from the net

 

 

In 2024, the Baltimore Museum, the Walters Museum in Baltimore and seven other cultural and educational institutions in and around Baltimore showcased the work of Elizabeth Talford Scott in conjunction with a review at the Baltimore Museum of the 50 years of creative work of her daughter,  Joyce J. Scott.

 

———————-

 

Elizabeth Talford Scott (nee Caldwell) was born, one of 14 siblings, in South Carolina on land – the Blackstock Plantation – where her parents lived as sharecroppers and her grandparents as slaves. 

 

 

 

Plantation, 1980, cotton ground, cotton, wool, and synthetic blend applique, cotton and silk embroidery threads, metal needle, cotton lining.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Baltimore Appliqued Society Fund loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2023/24

 

Scott’s daughter,  Joyce J. Scott,  embedded a threaded needle in a seven-pointed star in the lower left of this quilt.

 

 

The family made many of the material objects they needed using pottery, metalwork, basketry, quilting, knitting and woodwork.  They grew their own food.

 

Elizabeth Talford Scott learned to quilt by the age of 9. 

 

Her daughter has preserved the quilts made by her mother, both her maternal grandparents, paternal grandmother; and by her godmother.

 

These were displayed by her daughter at the 50th year retrospective of her own work in a protective shelter, crowned and lined  with her own beaded figures and flat work. 

 

 

Joyce J. Scott sitting with her ‘The Threads That Unite My Seat to Knowledge’, 2024

The Threads That Unite My Seat to Knowledge, 2024

Stripped piece quilts of her forbears; and mixed media in a performance environment. 

Joyce J. Scott, American born 1948 on loan to the Baltimore Art Museum in 2024. Photo by Chlöe Williams 

 

 

*************

 

 

In 1940, Elizabeth Talford Scott moved to Baltimore in the large internal migration of African Americans north and west out of the south of the United States (the Great Migration, 1916-1970). 

 

She married in Baltimore and gave birth to one child, Joyce J. Scott in 1948, whom she came to raise alone.

 

 

******************

 

 

In Baltimore, Elizabeth Talford Scott worked for 30 years as a domestic servant, nanny and cook.  She did no quilting during these years and took it up when she retired in the mid-1970s. 

 

Her quilting added a number of innovations to the traditional strip piecing which she had learned.

She achieved a form of shallow relief work using cotton batting.

 

She used applique; and embellished with bead work, sequins, plastic netting, and objects like stones, buttons and shells.

 

The subjects of her quilts were personal symbols, symbolic stories of her own life, remembrance of her African ancestors; and of her rural childhood.

 

 

Flower Garden, #1, 1979-1997, fabric, thread.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Collection of the artist and her gallery on loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2024

 

Thousands of knotted lengths of yarn and thread sewn together. A memory of the flowers she grew.

 

 

Quilts which she made for people were meant, sometimes, as a type of poultice to soothe pain and would contain talismans in the batting between the outer layers of the quilt.  Others were representations of dreams told to her.

 

*************

 

Two Legacies

 

Elizabeth Talford Scott’s first legacy is her daughter, Joyce J. Scott.

 

 

 

Elizabeth Talford Scott and her daughter, Joyce J. Scott.  Date unknown, before 2011. Photo from the net

 

 

She taught her daughter to quilt. 

 

 

Three Generation Quilt 1, 1983, fabric, thread. 

Joyce J. Scott, American born 1948.  Collection of the artist on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2024

 

 

They remained close all her life and lived together when her daughter was not away studying. They taught workshops together and would also lecture together.

 

 

Monsters, Dragons, Flies, fabric, thread, beads, 1982

Joyce J. Scott, American born 1948 and Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. 

Loaned by the Mississippi Museum of Art to the Baltimore Art Museum in 2024

 

 

Joyce J. Scott, extensively educated and well travelled, took up her mother’s needle and expanded her skills into sculptural beading, beaded jewellery, and glass blowing.  She is also a performance artist.

 

 

As above

 

Her work is housed in more than 25 art institutions and she has had more than 70 separate individual exhibitions. 

 

 

As above

 

************

 

The second of Elizabeth Talford Scott’s legacies is the fortitude and creativity of her life.

 

She came of a people, who, granted their legal freedom at the end of civil war,  have had to fight against the blatant and subtle, pernicious forms of discrimination which are an enduring characteristic of North American life.  

 

Elizabeth Talford Scott, after a life of cleaning other people’s houses, day by day, month after month,

 

 

 

Nanny Now, Nigger Later, 1986, leather, beads, fabric.

Joyce J. Scott, American born 1948. Private collection loan to the Baltimore Art Museum in 2024

 

 

and caring for other people’s children,

 

 

As above

 

approaching 60, took up the thread of her childhood and adolescence and began to sew her life. 

 

She created textile tableaux  which are dense, often encrusted, freighted with symbols, and full of colour. Sometimes whimsical and often joyful.

 

 

 

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, 1992; fabrics, thread, rocks, beads, buttons, shells.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Private collection loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2024

 

 

 

Lowery’s Quilt, 1987, fabric, thread, mixed media.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Private collection loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2024

 

 

 

The Family of the Whosits, fabric, buttons, beads, rocks, thread, sequins, shells, netting, metal, pins.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2024 by the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

 

 

 

 

Grandfather’s Cabin/Noah’s Ark, 1993-1996, fabric, thread, mixed media.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American.  Estate of the artist

 

The artist said this: “This is a family. The man, the woman, the baby. That’s a family of sea creatures. Tadpoles and lizards. You see the snake? He’s to protect it, anyone from coming in.”

 

 

Eyes of the Eighties, 1991, fabric, thread, mixed media.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Private loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2023/24 

A gift of the artist to her ophthalmologist who restored her sight with a series of operations in the mid-1980s.

 

 

 

Hourglass, 1984, cotton and synthetic ground, cotton and metallic embroidery thread, glass beads, plastic, and metal objects, rocks.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Baltimore Appliqued Society Fund loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2023/24

 

 

 

Untitled, 1995,  fabric, thread, mixed media.

Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. Private loan to the Baltimore Museum of  Art in 2023/24 

 

 

 

Rocks in Prison, 1993,  fabric, thread, rocks. Elizabeth Talford Scott, 1916-2011, American. 

Baltimore Museum of Art

 

The artist said this about rocks: “When I was a child, we had a rock at every door.  Understand? It was for luck. And we had a horseshoe over the door and had a shotgun under the horseshoe.” 

 

 

 

Mother’s Hand, 1997, beads, thread, wire.

Joyce J. Scott, American born 1948. Exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2024.