Fairy Grandmother

Jana Lankford

50 x 30 inches

2019

ARTIST STATEMENT

A fairy grandmother is like a magical fairy godmother, but instead of helping imaginary children, she helps real children. She steps in and takes them away from the screaming and chaos — and cares for them. She gives them structure, kindness, clean clothes, balanced meals, and gets them to school on time. Everyday.

Approximately 2.7 million grandparents in the United States are raising their own grandchildren. The reasons are many: death, deployment, mental illness, substance abuse, incarceration. My hero is my own mother-in-law, who helped raise our four young nephews.

I’m so glad they had a fairy grandmother.

MATERIALS

Commercial fabrics

Machine piecing, appliqué, quilting