CULTUAL
FOOTPI NTS
Tracing the history of an artist’s creative journey
to foster understanding between communities and
lay a path for more artists to follow
SUMMER 2022 | LAKE OCONEE LIVING 47
The homeplace needs
cleaning out. e door
leading to the attic is
ajar. Many items are stacked
and shoved into corners.
In the back there is something
wrapped in what seems
to be a large quilt. e object
is heavy. Carefully, the quilt
is pulled aside, revealing appliquéd
images stitched onto
calico fabric. Inside the quilt is
a rather large pot.
ese abandoned items
did not nd a useful place to
be; they must not be worth
keeping.
ink again.
Many museum pieces have
lived in basements and attics
for dozens of years. If the quilt
is a narrative quilt and the
pot has “Dave” scratched into
the clay, then these might be
connected to two people who
made functional items that are
now considered valuable art.
David Drake, an enslaved
stoneware potter born in
Edgeeld, S.C., made pots that
now reside in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in
New York, the Museum of
Fine Arts Boston, Charleston
Museum, the Greenville
County Museum of Art, and
the Madison-Morgan Cultural
Center.
Harriet Powers, an enslaved
appliqué quilter born in Athens,
made ve quilts; one is
displayed in the Smithsonian
and the other surviving quilt
can be found in the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston. Powers
was inducted into the Georgia
STORY BY LEARA RHODES
Dave Drake, an enslaved stoneware
otter orn n gefiel C ae
pots that now reside in the Metropolitan
useu of rt n ew ork the useu
of Fne rts oston Charleston useu
reenlle useu of rt an the
thsonan oe were auctone for
llons of ollarshe asonorgan
Cultural Center has fie of these ots
one fro the eranent collecton an
four others fro rate ctens that
are currently on slay through uly
he O eht rngs the
ots together an celerates ther eauty
whle sharng ther cole cultural
an artstc legaces Photo by Elizabeth
Moore