Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts

Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts, 2006, 50"W x 50"L

Crafsmanship:

Artist: Elizabeth Garlington
Dimensions: 50”W x 50”L

Medium: Fiber/Studio Art Quilt/Fabric Document

Place of Origin: Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts was crafted in my studio located in Memphis, Tennessee from December 2005 to March 2006, professionally photographed on March 30, 2006 (Nashville, TN), and publicly exhibited on April 1-2, 2006 (Nashville, TN).

Materials: Cotton and Polyester Fabrics, Cotton and Metallic Threads, Cotton Batting, Fusible Interfacing, Machine Appliqué and Embroidery

Button Embellishments, Surface Paint (Acrylic), Prismacolor Color Pencil,

Techniques:

Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts is a quilt that is a cloth construction made by joining two pieces of constructed fabric together with cotton batting as a filler in-between the quilt top and the quilt backing. The quilt top is the area of high visual impact, creativity and self-expression — an imagistic, narrative surface expressing my experiences growing up in the southern Bible Belt.

Quilt Construction: Quilting as a technique is the stitching of two pieces of material together with padding in-between. Quilts can be hand-pieced, machine-pieced, hand-quilted or machine quilted. Quilt construction by Singer Sewing Machines was as early as the mid-1800's.

Why I Made the Quilt and What the Work Means as a Whole:

The fabric document, Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts, is a narrative art quilt littered with images, words, and phrases that I have experienced as a southerner "born and bred in the briar patch." In my life, I have been a keen observer of my southern roots and Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts is the format I chose in which to preserve my observations and life experiences—some humorous and some painful. I crafted this work of fiber art because, literally, my sides were splitting to make a narrative work strictly about the southern Bible Belt. I simply had to record, vis-a-vis a quilt, my belief that in the south, everything is sacred and everybody believes in something. I have traveled to many southern spaces and places and have lived in the great southern states of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In my lifetime, I have experienced southern culture at its best and at its worst. I believe that each and every state that composes "the Bible Belt" has a distinct flavor.

DETAILED MEANINGS

Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts: Southern Experiences and Influences

Tennessee Connections:

Throughout my childhood, teenage years, and adulthood, I have traveled to and lived in Tennessee. My sojourns to the state that has often been identified as the "buckle of the Bible belt" began when I attended summer camp at Camp DeSoto in Mentone, Alabama. As campers, we looked forward to the trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee where we would ride the incline to Ruby Falls and Rock City. I have spent a lot of time with family and friends on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. I lived and worked in Nashville, attended Vanderbilt University, exhibited my works of art at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Alive Hospice, and Cheekwood.

Mississippi Connections:

The urge to craft a quilt about the southern Bible Belt grew even stronger when I moved to Mississippi three years ago and experienced a completely foreign, yet very southern culture. I had read about southern Baptist fundamentalism and never thought that I would find myself in repeated situations with with members of my community either praying for me or begging me to come to church so that I would be "okay." I've learned that a Mississippian can say anything about anybody as long as the statement is concluded with "bless her heart." I have learned that the question "Who's your momma and them?" means a whole lot more than my simply providing the name of my mother. Lineage and family roots run deep in the south.

Georgia Connections:

Like Peachtree Road, the symbols of the Coca-Cola Company and The Varsity are very reminiscent of my native Atlanta. I grew up eating watermelons on the back brick terrace in the mid-summer months, surviving Georgia-Auburn football games as a freshman at The University of Georgia, driving down 341 South to St. Simons Island, Georgia, and exhilarating in the delight of drinking a real cherry Coke with crushed ice from the soda fountain in downtown Madison, Georgia. I love Moon Pies and RC Colas, plastic, pink flamingos in the front yards of my Florida neighbors, and the classic design of John Deere tractors and Jack Daniels whiskey bottles

RELIGIOUS IMAGES:

The Sacred and the Profane (or Everybody believes in Something)

I attended Vanderbilt Divinity School when I lived in Nashville, Tennessee. The rigorous academic program forced me to question my own belief system, the belief systems of others, and the often aggressive persuasion of specifically southern religious institutions to prod a soul to venture through its chapel doors. In the south, where everyone believes in something, often the destination of the pilgrimage is not to the sacred but to the profane (profane beliefs being popular culture or “counterfeit”). Elvis, Jesus Christ, and Robert E. Lee comprise the southern triumvirate or holy southern trinity so to speak. People make a spiritual journey to their church home, to a civil war reenactment, or to Graceland. People worship the great football coach Bear Bryant and the feeling that a shot of Southern Comfort or Jack Daniels provides on a sweltering, pre-game mid-morning. People believe that Elvis is alive. I have observed people lighting and placing votive candles on the stone wall surrounding Graceland. People worship the money they want to win at the gambling casinos in Tunica, Mississippi. It’s too bad that the “house always wins.” Memphians travel to Rendezvous for ribs, and as recently as early July 2006, President George W. Bush graced the restaurant with a troupe of secret service agents and a Japanese dignitary. People have said that eating ribs at Rendezvous is a "religious experience." Thus, walking through the entry ways of Graceland, Rendezvous, Rock City, SEC football stadiums, or the Hernando, MS Baptist Church provide people with what I would call profound experiences — whether the destination is sacred or profane — the journey has a more than meaningful element. I believe that in "The South," everybody believes in something and everything is sacred.

My feelings about Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts:

I treasure the art quilt, Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts, as the work represents smatterings of my Bible Belt culture that I find both humorous and terrifying. I want visitors to the Tennessee State Museum to witness the slices of southern life I have experienced. It is my hope that Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts will serve both as a testament to southern culture and as a format that both preserves and communicates southern culture. Counterfeit Faiths and Southern Comforts preserves the iconography of a woman’s southern experiences that, hopefully, will be viewed by visitors to the Tennessee State Museum eighty years hence.



IMAGES/ICONOGRAPHY BY CATEGORY

Southern Bible Belt Iconography

Coca-Cola (Coke)

SEC Football

Pink flamingos

Robert E. Lee

Elvis Presley

Confederate flags

John Deere tractors

RC Cola/Moon Pie

Pick-up trucks

Southern Comfort, Rebel Yell, Jack Daniels

The Varsity

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)

Outhouse

Aunt Jemimah Pancake Mix

Watermelons

Rattlesnakes

Skoal

Mark Twain references/quotes

Red roses

Git R' Done


Tennessee Iconography

Elvis Presley

Graceland

Pink Cadillac

Rendezvous

See Rock City birdhouse

Jack Daniels

Tennessee license plates

Elvis license plate

"Return to Sender" letter/mailbox


Georgia Iconography

The Varsity

Atlanta Steeple Chase

Florida Iconography

Pink flamingos

Faith-Based Iconography

"Jesus vs. Elvis"

Scopes Monkey Trial, Intelligent Design

Gay Rights

Ten Commandments

From Graceland to the Holy Land

Church/church signage imagery

Baptism

Sign (Snake) Handlers


License Plates

Louisiana
Virginia
Tennessee
South Carolina
Alabama
"Love the South" license plate
Florida
North Carolina
Arkansas
Georgia
Texas
Mississippi