Down Home
Down Home by Andrea Cummings | Embroidery and Appliqué
“Down Home”, utilizing embroidery and appliqué techniques, is my depiction of my grandmother’s farm located in an area known as Clifton just outside of Danville, Kentucky. During August of every year my family headed south from Dayton, Ohio to Clifton. One particular summer Mama Sue’s roof needed repairing. Down home is a phrase often used by folks when referring to where they came from and among family and friends that is all the explanation needed. Down Home was created from my memory of those visits and reinforced by a collection of black and white photographs.
As a little girl the thought of no electricity, no running water, or using an outhouse did nothing to dull the excitement of seeing Mama Sue. I remember dipping rainwater from a barrel, my father’s shaving mirror on the side of the house, the wood stove in the kitchen, icebox on the back porch, and the little table that my sister repainted every summer while I got to snap green beans and shell peas. But my fondest memories are from walking up that gravel road hand-in-hand and climbing over the fence with my grandmother.
Andrea Cummings is a textile artist originally from Dayton, Ohio whose artwork is all created by hand utilizing a combination of embroidery, appliqué, crochet, and quilting techniques. Her subject matter comes from experiences in her own background of visual and performance art and life experiences. For the past 15 years, Andrea has been an active member and served in several leadership positions of the African American Visual Artists Guild (AAVAG) of Dayton, Ohio.
