Southern California in the 1950s was “Technicolor,” says Michael A. Cummings of his childhood. “The cars, the houses, the Christmas trees came in different colors. I was used to a lot of lush color all around me, which became a foundation for the way I look at the world.” So, while hosting a banner-making event at the American Craft Museum in the 1970s, he cut up some colorful fabrics and “everybody was amazed,” he recalls. He taught himself to stitch with needle and thread and to do appliqué. But when he finally bought a sewing machine, it became his “dance partner, because she learned all my moves in taking fabric through all my twists and turns.”

After meeting Romare Bearden, Cummings realized he too could create narratives about African American history and life through collage—but by using fabric rather than paper. Synthesizing the aesthetic qualities of folk art, African and African American art, and jazz with his own cut-out approach and often semi-abstract sensibility, Cummings has created boldly colorful and texturally arresting expressions. Large-scale storytelling works such as the James Baldwin and African Jazz series and the three-part Slave Ship Henrietta Marie (now in the collection of the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska) cemented his reputation. His more recent works, influenced by Bob Rauschenberg’s readymades and Faith Ringgold’s texts, incorporate plastic, wood, metal, words, textile paint, keys, safety pins, and silk flowers.