Artwork copyright Mildred Howard. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Stories from Caney Creek: Mildred and Mamma Dear, Date unknown

Mildred Howard
(American, born 1945)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Mount Vernon

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

'Stories from Caney Creek: Mildred and Mama Dear' presents an altered photo of two woman feeding chickens. The photo has drawings and markings around it, and it is framed in a repurposed window frame. There is also a small photo of a man on the right side of the artwork. Artist Mildred Howard combines found objects, salvaged windows, and family photographs to depict stories and memories. The artwork commemorates the people and places of her mother's childhood in rural Texas.

This artwork is part of a series of mixed-media assemblages created by Mildred Howard for the collection "Who We Are: Autobiographies in Art." The series was commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1990.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Who We Are: Autobiographies in Art Collection.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Artist Mildred Howard works in multiple mediums, including mixed media, collage, and sculpture. Her work is about the universal connections between people and place separated by arbitrary borders. Howard is a Bay Area artist who is African American.

Howard is a native of San Francisco. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree from John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California in 1985. She has received many awards and fellowships including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, the Lee Krasner Award in recognition of a lifetime of artistic achievement, a Rockefeller Fellowship, and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her artworks are in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, and many more.