Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1233255
APRIL/MAY 2020 | maconmagazine.com 35 big you mean? What are you talking about? I like to make socks and scarves!'" Holloway gestured broadly with his hands – as big as this wall, he said. So, McQueen is going big, with the encouragement and support of her old boyfriend, who is now her new boyfriend – she refers to him charmingly as Boyfriend, as if that's his proper name. When they were at Howard together, Holloway told her he'd stand by her until she had a vision of what she'd do for her life's work – and he's here, all these years later, helping and inspiring her as she prepares for her largest-scale project yet. With a few months until "e Covering" is set to open, McQueen's studio is strewn with her artwork – glorious piles of colorful fabric, some painted, some textured. She's working small now, but planning big, looking forward to assembling these components into their final form. "I don't think I make quilts anymore," she observed. "I think – I hope – I've evolved. I think I'm taking quilting elements through a new passage and into an abstract form that is enlightening and encouraging." It's exhilarating to see McQueen gathering every bit of the skill, knowledge and expertise she's garnered over her 77 years and using it to push herself boldly forward as an artist, to reinvent and explore, to provoke and to soothe. "When you get close to the end of anything, including the end of your life, you get realistic. You say, 'Well, this is it. You better work,'" she said. And that's exactly what she'll be doing for the next few months as she prepares for "e Covering." "One of the nicest gifts I ever received was the opportunity to have the support to decide what I wanted my life's work to be. And I've always done what I wanted to do. I've never suffered through jobs in hopes of becoming an artist," McQueen said. "ere hasn't been a day that I woke up and didn't want to do what was before me. It's been over 50 years now and I still feel grateful, and that's why I'm making this work, doing this show – to share myself with my community." Natalia's W W W . N A T A L I A S . N E T 2 0 1 N O R T H M A C O N S T R E E T Award winning fine dining 438 Cherry Street 478.746.9485 theatremacon.com