Thursday, September 04, 2008
TOM GORDON
News staff writer
Artist Tyree McCloud has finished painting wooden murals of some of the famous quilts made in the Wilcox County community of Gee’s Bend, and now it is up to the County Commission to put the murals at designated points along a 17-mile Gee’s Bend Quilt Mural Trail.
“If they bring it to my attention, I can get it taken care of,” said Commissioner Tracy Shaw, whose district includes Gee’s Bend.
McCloud, a Gee’s Bend native, stained-glass artist and former teacher, has spent most of the summer fashioning plywood murals – 8 feet by 8 feet and coated with polyurethane – of some of Gee’s Bend’s most famous quilts, those that appeared on postage stamps last year. The plan is to place each mural near the home of the woman who made the original quilt.
We’re hoping certainly before the end of this month that they’ll be up and people can use (the trail),” McCloud said. “Because people are coming over practically daily and they need something to kind of direct them and something to see.”
McCloud painted the murals in the back of Black Belt Treasures, a nonprofit enterprise in the Wilcox County seat of Camden that sells artists’ wares from the Black Belt and five surrounding counties. One day there last summer, he met Linda Vice, the director at Southwest Alabama Tourism. At Vice’s request, he painted a mural of one of the 10 quilts featured on the stamps.
That mural depicting the late Lottie Mooney’s quilt now stands near what was the quilter’s home in Gee’s Bend. Vice liked the mural so much that she asked McCloud to do murals of the nine other postage stamp quilts.
Vice and others in the area have long felt Wilcox County needed something more to capitalize on the regional and national interest in Gee’s Bend’s quilters and in the recently restored ferry service between Gee’s Bend and the Camden side of the Alabama River.
In July, the county commission accepted a bid of nearly $700,000 from a contractor to build a terminal for the ferry at its Camden landing. Commissioner Mark Curl said the terminal could house exhibits and displays on Gee’s Bend and its famous quilters.
“When we get far on with the ferry terminal, … everything’s going to fall in place real nice,” Shaw said.
E-mail: tgordon@bhamnews.com
© 2008 The Birmingham News. http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/122051617277440.xml&coll=2
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ARTIST FINISHES PAINTING GEE’S BEND QUILT MURALS; NEXT STEP IS PLACING THEM ALONG A TOURIST TRAIL
By Tom Gordon – The Birmingham News
September 3, 2008 – Artist Tyree McCloud has finished painting wooden murals of some of the famous quilts made in the Wilcox County community of Gee’s Bend, and now it is up to the county commission to put the murals at designated points along a 17-mile Gee’s Bend Quilt Mural Trail.
“If they bring it to my attention, I can get it taken care of,” said Commissioner Tracy Shaw, whose district includes Gee’s Bend. “We’re going to put them in real nice locations, clean off a spot .¤.¤. and then gravel it so people can get out and if they want to take pictures of it, they can take pictures and have a place to stand.”
McCloud, a Gee’s Bend native, stained glass artist and former teacher, has spent most of the summer fashioning 8-by-8 foot polyurethane-coated plywood murals of some of Gee’s Bend’s most famous quilts, those that appeared on postage stamps last year. The plan is to place each mural near the home of the woman who made the original quilt.
“We’re hoping certainly before the end of this month, that they’ll be up and people can use (the trail),” McCloud said. “Because people are coming over practically daily and they need something to kind of direct them and something to see.”
Wilcox officials have long felt the county needed something more to capitalize on the regional and national interest in Gee’s Bend’s quilters and in the recently restored ferry service between Gee’s Bend and the Camden side of the Alabama River.
Tyree McCloud working on one of the wooden murals of a Gee’s Bend quilt destined for a spot on a quilt tourism trail in the Wilcox County community.
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Ann
We were in Gees Bend last Spring and didn’t see any indication of a Quilt Trail. I would so appreciate some information on it as we are going back this Spring.
Looking forward to hearing from you.