Tar Beach 2

“This image comes from Ringgold’s childhood memories of summertime dinners atop the roof of the Harlem, New York, apartment building where she and her family lived. In the lower left-hand corner, the artist pictures herself as an eight-year-old child lying with her younger brother on a mattress, contemplating the starlit nighttime sky. She is telling him a story of a young girl named Cassie Louise Lightfoot, Ringgold’s alter ego, who has been given the power of flight. Even more impressive is Cassie's ability to possess whatever she can fly over, which in this case is the George Washington Bridge. Ringgold produced this limited-edition silk-screened quilt at the nearby Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia.” Source: Sajet, Kim. The Chemistry of Color: African American Artists in Philadelphia, 1970-1990. Philadelphia, PA: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2005, pg. 51