Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney

You would never believe that Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney flunked sewing in high school. To see her art quilts, one would think she's been at this a lifetime. But it was only seven years ago that Mooney lost her job as a dance teacher in San Diego and she explored the idea of sewing again.

"A business was always a thought," she says from her shop, Rhythm & Hues in New Orleans. "My daughter reminded me of the dolls I used to make, so I started back sewing." Mooney returned to her hometown of New Orleans, but the dolls she once stitched grew into something larger ---quilts. She calls her work "stitched-impression story quilts."

"Never underestimate how something as simple as needle and thread can create a work of art," says Mooney, who uses her imagination, needle, thread and fabric to create vibrant displays of nontraditional art quilts. It's as if she is working in a giant-sized coloring book. Her use of raw-edge appliqués in noteworthy. She infuses the Old World aesthetics of quilting in a contemporary vein. Her desire is for people to appreciate the value of a quilt. "If you have them in your family, please don't throw them away. Treat it as a work of art. Don't give away your history."

She calls her signature collection "The Big City Women." "Women have big hearts, passion, views, gestures and attitudes," Mooney says. "We are very versatile. I translate that into the quilts."

For 14 hours a day, she weaves stories together to create history for her clients. Her goal is to get the thing in "your head and heart out on to something tangible."

Recently, Mooney was commissioned by the Johnson & Johnson company to make crib quilts for select hospitals around the country. She is artist-in-residence for the company and for the River Road African American Museum in Darrow, La. For four years, she was an artist-in-residence with the African American Women on Tour. Mooney started showing her work in local festivals; today her pieces cost from $500 to several thousand dollars. She hopes to one day own a home interior showcase.

"The work that she does is so different from the traditional sense of quilting," says Darryl Hambrick, co-founder of the River Road Museum. "We're preserving the history of African-Americans and quilting has always been a part of that. She has been very instrumental in keeping this part of our history alive."

To Mooney's knowledge, there are no quilters in her family. But she remembers that her mother and grandmother used to embroider and sew. "It teaches you patience," she says. "The beauty of it is you could put it down and come back and there is no such thing as a mistake."

Jacquelyn uses Hang-Ups exclusively for all her framing. Several of Jacquelyn's artwork pieces resides in the home of Oprah Winfrey

sounds of the men

Ms. Mooney is a professor and artist in residence at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her work has been featured on NBC's Today Show, Minority Business Reports, and numerous book and periodicals. Additionally, her work is in the collections of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Former President Bill Clinton, Dr's. Bill and Camille Cosby and Dr. Maya Angelou.

Left: A close-up of one of Jacquelyn Mooney's artwork

pieces that was frames at Hang-Ups Art & Frame.

Notice the detail and contrasts of fabrics.

I am an artist…

I am enchanted with movement and color. “Those rhythm and hues so like the blues…hold me sweet and sway”. My direction became apparent when I surrendered to the sublime. I strive to convey pure emotion and articulate truth…my perception, my truths. The momentous challenges in my time drew me to examine, not just my internal truths, but to act on them.

Consider me an idealist, and I’ll say you are right. But consider me as I strive to see beauty and merit even if it is at times on the sunny side of misery. I have struggled, as with all of us, to not want to engage, not to achieve, or to see a flaw as wrong rather than at worst a misstep, not a mistake. And not to see something that is fragile as a weakness, but as something precious. That nothing or no one is little let along my vision.

You will not see, in my visual poetry "perfection", as I am not. But you will see what I propose, to convey a rightness that is, because it is. We all have an inherent birthright to be heard and for me no story is too small or any person too small for acknowledgement. My heart’s siren call will not be locked into whatever prescribed mode is current, fashionable or elite.

During this ongoing process, I have come to discover that many others’ footprints crossed my own, co-mingling their life stories, willingly or not, into my own. And by doing that, they wrapped their truths into mine aiding in the creation of these textile collages that is now mes affaires belle (my beautiful belongings).

Martha Beck, author, once said, “Great art is simply a reflection of the artist’s ability to disclose his or her inner experiences very directly and accurately”. In doing this we act on something that is fundamental to humans, to chronicle and archive our stories, leaving a mark, making a declaration that I was here and it matters.

-----Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney

“Pursue the things you love doing, and do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you. All the tangible rewards will follow”. Dr. Maya Angelou

Katrina, one year later

Louisiana artists talk about their response to the disaster

A quartet of women artists from New Orleans will visit the Central Coast on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As part of their visit to the area, they will present a slide show and lecture at CSUMB on Aug. 29 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the University Center ballroom.

Quilters Jacquelyn Mooney and Cely Tapplette-Pedescleaux, sculptor and photographer Phyllis Parun and painter Kichea Burt will talk about their experiences during the disaster and describe their art-making in response to it.

Mooney, whose work is collected by Oprah Winfrey, Alice Walker and Bill Clinton, recently told the Greensboro News Record that seeing her city in ruins inspired her to embark on a project titled 'On the Streets Where You Live,' a series of quilts that will tell the stories of New Orleans residents as a way of preserving and honoring their memories and leaving behind a legacy.

Those of us from New Orleans will keep its memory alive in our art," Mooney told the newspaper.

The event kicks off an exhibit by 15 members of the Louisiana Women's Caucus for Art at the Galeria Tonantzin in San Juan Bautista. The exhibit will run Sept. 1-24.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney, visual poet, started her artistic journey with coloring books, daydreams and doll houses. The native of New Orleans, LA is currently serving her third year as the Artist in Residence at Bennett College for Women.

A nationally recognized visual artist, Ms. Mooney's work is in a number of private and corporate collections including GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson Baby Products, Genetech, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, Whitney Bank, Wachovia Bank among others.

Her contemporary art quilts are in the collections of Danny Glover, Phylesha Rashad, Chief Justice Henry and Dr. Shirley Frye, Maya Angelou, the former U.S President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and many others.

She has been featured in a number of museums and galleries across the country. Currently her vibrant, visual poetry is on display in the “Textile Monument” Exhibition at the Green Hill Art Center.

She has, over the last 3 years, contributed a number of original pieces of art to the Greensboro's Habitat for Humanity homeowners and overseen the Katrina Community Quilt Project housed at Bennett.

Jacquelyn' Mooney's visual art has been featured in numerous periodicals and publications and has been seen on WFMY-The Morning Show, NBC Today Show, Minority Business Report, and a host of others. She has been nominated twice for the Louisiana Governor’s Arts Awards. For the last 3 years she created the Trailblazer awards for the JBC Diversity and Inclusion Institute sponsored CDO Forum.

She is currently residing in Greensboro, mother of three and grandmother of 7. And she still dares to dream.

Home :: Framing :: Specialty Mat Cutting :: Vera Bradley :: Art Gallery :: Rainbow Sandals

Pandora Jewelry :: Willow Tree :: Gifts :: Books & Stationery :: Jewelry :: Jacquelyn Mooney

Bearington Bears Home Decor :: Dolly Mama :: Wedding Gifts :: Greeting Cards :: About Us :: Contact Us

Hang-Ups Art & Frame

4607-A High Point Road

Greensboro, NC 27407

(336) 855-1268

Toll Free: (866) HANG-UPZ

Website Designed and Maintained by:

Spin A Web Designs, Inc.

336-329-9759