Lee Jackie White draws inspiration from the magical potential in ordinary experiences. White’s quilts play with color while committing an interaction to memory. These mini quilts are new tangible items depicting items that were once were, in hopes of preserving memories in new forms. Images borrowed from dreams, folk art, travels, or dinner parties, sketched and cut out of fabric. From this inspiration, they create vignettes and still lifes through textiles that hold snapshots of interactions and archive color stories. Most of the fabric is repurposed, hand-dyed, or salvaged- honoring the tradition of their grandmother.

White calls Jacksonville their hometown, but currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with their partner Mike. When Lee is not quilting, they are a community educator and organizer. They enjoy sharing meals with their loved ones, hiking, biking, woodworking, reading, jewelry making, and consuming reality TV.

This piece is inspired by a photograph taken by a dear one, a snapshot of a brunch before 4 of us set out on a faery camping trip filled with giggles, song, elaborate meals, and digging in the dirt. I was struck by the bird’s-eye view perspective of the table in the photo, which felt like a memorial to queer ancestors lost, angels up above peering on at our brunch, laughing along with us, earth.