Flour Girl - Letitia Huckaby (NEW)
Flour Girl , Letitia Huckaby

Flour Girl

Artist

Letitia Huckaby

Nationality

American

Heritage

African American

Medium

Lithograph

Collage

Date

January 6 2011

Dimensions

30 x 21 1/2 inches

Edition Size

80 prints in this edition

Printer

Robert "Bob" Franklin

Provenance

Brandywine Workshop and Archives

Location

Philadelphia, PA

About the Work

From the Artist

Flour Girl is a molding of my personal history. The background is a drawing of an authentic flour sack, the image is of my daughter, the work incorporates photography and family fabrics. My mother often told me of how her family grew and catered to all her family's needs. When they brought large sacks of flour, my mother's mother would make dresses with the fabric. I was always amazed at how self-sufficient they were. I waited to make a piece that directly deals with the things that were directly passed down in a family in the way of strength, creativity, and character. Using something as simple as a flour sack while elevating it to a more sufficient level.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records

I was inspired by my mother, actually, who grew up in Louisiana, where her family raised killed or grew everything they needed except for flour. My grandfather would go to the store to purchase flour, and at that time flour came in these beautiful, patterned cotton sacks, not the paper bags like we have today. The sacks became very popular among women during the late 19th century through the mid 20th century. Women would get certain amounts of a particular pattern so they could make clothing for their children out of the fabric. My grandmother would make dresses for the girls, and shorts for the boys. When the feed companies caught onto what the women were doing, they started changing up the patterns and releasing seasonal designs, so the unique patterns became a part of their branding and marketing campaigns. They knew they weren't just selling the substance inside, but the bags themselves were being used by women all across the county." 
—Excerpted from interviews conducted by Drexel University students, supervised by Jen Katz-Buonincontro, PhD, 2021–2022


Letitia Huckaby combines the documentary aspects of photography with quilt-making techniques to explore her personal history. Flower Girl showcases a photograph of the artist’s daughter in the center of the print, wearing a pink floral dress. The dress blends into the background, being of the same pattern, highlighting the process and themes of dressmaking and textile work. To the left, there is a strip of texture running down the image, signifying the fibrous qualities of a flour sack, relating directly to the inspiration for this print. The creativity and ingenuity of the artist’s family to use their used flour sacks as fabric for dresses are remembered and honored here. Huckaby's lithograph relates to a larger body of mixed media work that pays tribute to generations of women who, out of craftiness and necessity, were able to raise families despite constant challenges.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records

About the Artist

Letitia Huckaby

Letitia Huckaby has a degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma, Norman; a BFA in photography from Art Institute of Boston; and master’s degree from University of North Texas, Denton.

Huckaby has exhibited at Phillips, New Y...

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