![]() ![]() "Laying on the roof in the night with stars and skyscraper buildings all around me made me feel rich, like I owned all that I could see. "Sleeping on Tar Beach was magical," the child writes in the accompanying quilted text. The girl and her baby brother lie on a mattress, mesmerized by the stars and the lights of the bridge. The painted scene includes the child's parents and neighbors playing cards at a rooftop table. ![]() Set on the tar papered roof of a Harlem apartment building - the "tar" beach - the story centers on a child who imagines she can fly over the nearby George Washington Bridge. The combination pays off handsomely in such works as "Tar Beach," a 1988 piece that began her "Woman on a Bridge" series. Though still influenced by her exposure to the harsh realities of life, Ringgold gives more attention to the realm of imagination and make-believe than ever before. They also gave rise to a far less strident, almost poetic voice seasoned with humanity and humor. They helped push her from the first ranks of African-American artists into the forefront of the art world as a whole. The focus of her energy since the early 1980s, these innovative works have since become her most widely known efforts. They also cross two traditional folk art forms, the quilt and the family legend, with those previous artistic interests. Ringgold's famous story quilts incorporate influences from her paintings, her soft sculptures and her experiences with performance art. "The work was not just about the children in Atlanta," the artist later explained. ![]()
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