Cotton was not only made in Arizona but is also inspired by the history of Coolidge and Randolph, two small towns about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. We lived in Coolidge for three years when Devan was in Middle School. Coolidge is a small town who historically has made a living off of the Pima cotton that grows so well in the irrigated, sunny soil. The Casa Grande ruins are in this little town and consequently we can infer that agriculture has been a big deal in this area for about a thousand years.

Because the Arizona climate is so unGodly hot I used to run on the dirt roads beside the irrigation ditches early in the mornings before the sun got too high. When the pima cotton started to grow the fields were awash in green with delicate pink flowers. After the cotton was fully developed the farmers would cut off the irrigation and let the plants dry out because that makes them easier to pick the cotton bolls off. And during that time of the year the temperature in the region is well above 100 degrees and the air is dry, dusty and hot, hot, hot. On my morning runs I began to wonder about the people who had moved into the area, particularly in the 30's, in order to work in the fields. I went down to the local historical society to see if I could do a little research.

Evidently in the 1920s Coolidge had a bumper cotton crop and the farmers were a little concerned that they wouldn't be able to get enough workers to get the cotton in and onto the railroad cars in time. One man knew of a small town in Mississippi that was made up of share croppers who were experienced in cotton agriculture and he went back there to see if he could get workers. A deal was worked out that relocated almost the entire small town to a four corner piece of land just outside of Coolidge. The town was named Randolph and had it's own Post Office, store, and a small one room schoolhouse who's teacher was paid out of the town of Coolidge's taxes. The town of Randolph was one of the first all black towns in the West. Coolidge got its cotton picked, kept its schools segregated, and actually passed a law that required all blacks to be out of Coolidge by sundown.

By the time we lived there, of course, the schools were integrated and my daughter was going to classes with children from Mexico, the Navajo reservation and the African American children whose families used to live in Randolph. When I went into the schools to volunteer working with her classmates I was struck by the knowledge that 60 years ago those children would not only not be welcomed in Coolidge, but would have been out working in the fields in the inhuman heat of the harvest time.

At around this same time my friend Thelma Smith www.thelmasmith.com/blog/ asked if I would like to produce a quilt for her upcoming show at the Tubac Art Center called Wrapped in Cloth: The Human Figure in Textile Arts. And that is when the whole design of this quilt came together for me. The faces quilted into the background are inspired by historical photographs from the 1920s to the 1940s in Arizona. I intended the figures of the people to be "surprising" to the viewer and to be a strong part of the background of the quilt, the underpinnings and strength of the delicate tracery of the Pima cotton plant. My intention was to demonstrate that the strength and beauty of the cloth comes not only from the land, but from the people who worked the land. I wanted to demonstrate that beauty can only come from beauty, strength can only come from strength. Cotton is really a homage to the people who came west to find a new life for themselves and their children, and who poured themselves out in order to create that life.