Elizabeth Talford Scott

Elizabeth Talford Scott (b.1916- d.2011) was born near Chester, South Carolina on the land her parents worked as sharecroppers, and where previously her grandparents were held as enslaved people. The sixth of fourteen children who lived on the Blackstalk Plantation, the [then] young Elizabeth was trained by family members to repurpose scrapped materials into usable resources in the interest of basic survival needs. Quilting was a familiar part of the black American experience, especially in the South. It was a keystone for innovation, upcycling, expression, and for passing historical narratives from one generation to the next. Talford-Scott honed those quilting skills at a young age, though her invention within the medium would develop over many years, moving away from domestic function into improvisational, sculptural wall hangings that live squarely within the vernacular of fine art.