Darlene R. Taylor

I explore kinship, place, and history in fiction and visual art.  Collage and silhouette are ways of finding my way to the pieces of half told stories. Remembering histories of everyday Black women centers my practice. Mine is a family of makers, and I learned dressmaking and needlework from the women in my family.  There was whisper, laughter, and song, so storytelling comes to me as visual verse.

I call my work Heirlooms because of the handed down, antique and vintage textiles, and sewing traditions I employ to craft these narrative silhouettes. Heirlooms is tradition, ancestral ties, memory, creative archive, and the beauty of Black family life. Heirlooms claims personal memories and assembles visual stories alongside verse and prose. Heirlooms honors ancestors.