ABOUT
Yemaya Jones is a pioneering artist in the field of fabric art design, particularly itajime (clamp resist) and batik. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries across the country including the Studio Museum of Harlem. Yemaya's art has been a constant feature in fashion shows, creating an entire collection for the Annual Congressional Black Caucus fashion show, Atlanta Style (a retrospective of African American style) and the Sunstyle Show held on the island of Barbados. Yemaya has also been honored to have her work included in the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designer's private collection.
Yemaya, was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Yemaya's mother, an artist, instilled a love for the arts in her children early in life. It was during the turbulent sixties, in the midst of the Civil Rights movement, that Yemaya fell in love with the art of dyed and embellished cloth. She began by wearing African fabrics. She also began to look at the art of Indian batik and African hand-painted clothing. She saw that there were many loudly spoken as well as subtle messages in the fabrics.
It wasn't until the seventies, however, that she had the opportunity to take courses and pursue her love of tie-dying, batiking and hand-painting fabric. She moved to Brooklyn, New York and earned her degree in education from Long Island University. During this time, she went into business with some friends tie-dying tee-shirts which they sold to various stores in the New York area.
Her mother was a talented artist that often painted murals on her bedroom walls. Her education degree is from Long Island University, but she has taken many post-graduate classes in fashion, design, and fabric dyeing. In the summer of 1976, she studied two courses at the Brookfield Craft Center in Connecticut: "Natural Dying" and the "Chemical Structure of Dyes" that help open the world of precise color mixing. This led her to take more courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology "Marketing Your Craft" and the Parson School of Design "Repeating Patterning for Home Furnishing". She presently does room dividers that was influence by the Parson's course. She also studied with Ann Hall, a renowned Itajime master and a phenomenal clamp resist artist in a six week course, this course eventually changed the direction of her work. It was not only her introduction to clamp resist, but also working with silk. During this period she was also teaching herself to batik and was fortunate enough to study with a local Virgin Island Batik artist Cindy Male and renowned Batik and Indigo Dyer artist Nike Davis from Nigeria. Yemaya developed her own style of clamp resist often combining it with batik and different forms of fabric embellishment. Her images embrace her Diaspora experience. Participating in her first two women show in the 1980s was a major step in becoming a recognized artist.
She has also taken classes at Penland School of Arts and Craft in Ashville, N.C., Mendocino Art Center, and with Anna Lisa Hedstrom at Arrowmont in Gatlingburg, Tennessee.
Yemaya mostly dyes, block print, batik, and embellish natural fabrics. Living on St Croix has wholly influenced my use of color with its rich, vibrant Caribbean hues. She has developed her own style of clamp resist, often combining it with batik and different forms of fabric embellishment. The images in her fabric embrace Yemaya's Diaspora experience, including her African ancestry.
The technique Yemaya frequently use is called Itajime– a folding clamping process. The clamping allows her to imprint these masks, symbols, and shapes. Another favorite technique is extracting color from dark fabric. One of the symbols she uses is an Adinkra Symbol from Ghana, West Africa, called Sankofa, which means ‘go back and fetch it.’ I have exhibited at The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., Rosa Park Museum in Alabama, Atlanta Black Arts Festival, Brooklyn NY Festival, and Art Festival St. Kitts. Yemaya has been fortunate to have her work featured in Essence, Emerge, Panache, and Caribbean World magazines. It was an honor to have her work appear in the Studio Museum of Harlem gift catalog.
Being a Breast Cancer survivor has instilled in her a reverence and an appreciation for life and the ability to be creative. She shared this gift by teaching textile design on the high school level. The textile design course was designed and implemented by her. She continues to exhibit her work locally and nationally. Yemaya's work can be seen at her studio located on the island of St. Croix at 1G Strand Square Frederiksted.
Yemaya, was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Yemaya's mother, an artist, instilled a love for the arts in her children early in life. It was during the turbulent sixties, in the midst of the Civil Rights movement, that Yemaya fell in love with the art of dyed and embellished cloth. She began by wearing African fabrics. She also began to look at the art of Indian batik and African hand-painted clothing. She saw that there were many loudly spoken as well as subtle messages in the fabrics.
It wasn't until the seventies, however, that she had the opportunity to take courses and pursue her love of tie-dying, batiking and hand-painting fabric. She moved to Brooklyn, New York and earned her degree in education from Long Island University. During this time, she went into business with some friends tie-dying tee-shirts which they sold to various stores in the New York area.
Her mother was a talented artist that often painted murals on her bedroom walls. Her education degree is from Long Island University, but she has taken many post-graduate classes in fashion, design, and fabric dyeing. In the summer of 1976, she studied two courses at the Brookfield Craft Center in Connecticut: "Natural Dying" and the "Chemical Structure of Dyes" that help open the world of precise color mixing. This led her to take more courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology "Marketing Your Craft" and the Parson School of Design "Repeating Patterning for Home Furnishing". She presently does room dividers that was influence by the Parson's course. She also studied with Ann Hall, a renowned Itajime master and a phenomenal clamp resist artist in a six week course, this course eventually changed the direction of her work. It was not only her introduction to clamp resist, but also working with silk. During this period she was also teaching herself to batik and was fortunate enough to study with a local Virgin Island Batik artist Cindy Male and renowned Batik and Indigo Dyer artist Nike Davis from Nigeria. Yemaya developed her own style of clamp resist often combining it with batik and different forms of fabric embellishment. Her images embrace her Diaspora experience. Participating in her first two women show in the 1980s was a major step in becoming a recognized artist.
She has also taken classes at Penland School of Arts and Craft in Ashville, N.C., Mendocino Art Center, and with Anna Lisa Hedstrom at Arrowmont in Gatlingburg, Tennessee.
Yemaya mostly dyes, block print, batik, and embellish natural fabrics. Living on St Croix has wholly influenced my use of color with its rich, vibrant Caribbean hues. She has developed her own style of clamp resist, often combining it with batik and different forms of fabric embellishment. The images in her fabric embrace Yemaya's Diaspora experience, including her African ancestry.
The technique Yemaya frequently use is called Itajime– a folding clamping process. The clamping allows her to imprint these masks, symbols, and shapes. Another favorite technique is extracting color from dark fabric. One of the symbols she uses is an Adinkra Symbol from Ghana, West Africa, called Sankofa, which means ‘go back and fetch it.’ I have exhibited at The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., Rosa Park Museum in Alabama, Atlanta Black Arts Festival, Brooklyn NY Festival, and Art Festival St. Kitts. Yemaya has been fortunate to have her work featured in Essence, Emerge, Panache, and Caribbean World magazines. It was an honor to have her work appear in the Studio Museum of Harlem gift catalog.
Being a Breast Cancer survivor has instilled in her a reverence and an appreciation for life and the ability to be creative. She shared this gift by teaching textile design on the high school level. The textile design course was designed and implemented by her. She continues to exhibit her work locally and nationally. Yemaya's work can be seen at her studio located on the island of St. Croix at 1G Strand Square Frederiksted.