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"Roxie's Touch"
Knowing how to sew was as essential as knowing how to cook for the colonial housewife. She hand sewed curtains, and slip covers, and most ofher family's clothing. Fabric scraps from her sewing, along with worn or outgrown garments, went into the scrap box to be used in patchwork quilts. A supply of quilts was a household necessity because the bedrooms were unheated.
It is a reflection of the pioneer spirit that the early homemakers would create designs that raised their quilting to the status of an art form.
The central focus of Dempsey Essick's new painting is a quilt in the Nosegay pattern made by Roxie Wofford, an expert quilter, from Southmont, North Carnllna. The Nosegay pattern is derived from the Flower Vase and Bridal Bouquet patterns created in the 1800's and first published in a magazine in 1933.
Dempsey with Roxie outside her Southmont home
"Roxie's Touch," presents a typical scene of a quilt -m-progress. Roxie has just stepped out of the picture leaving her basket of fabric scraps, a tobacco box {or razor blades and scissors, and her pincushion. All of which seems to say that she plans to return soon.
Bunches of flowers, or nosegays, along with a basket of MId blackberries, placed in the strong cross light of the morning sun, gives the feel of summer to the scene.
The fine detail in "Roxie's Touch," is unmatched by anything else Dempsey Essick has painted. The picture represents an enormous expenditure of time to accomplish the realism in each woven strand ofwickerwork, each fold and stitch in the quilt, and a lace tablecloth that appears to move in the breeze.
Viewers will find themselves stopping or slowing down each time they pass "Roxie's Touch" as each item in the picture asks for closer inspection.