Artwork Details
- Title
- Her Heart Was in the Clouds
- Artist
- Date
- 2012
- Location
- Dimensions
- 60 1⁄2 × 60 in. (153.7 × 152.4 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Fleur S. Bresler
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- cotton fabric, cotton thread, and cotton batt
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Architecture — vehicle — airplane
- Portrait female
- African American
- Occupation — transportation — pilot
- Object Number
- 2023.40.14
Artwork Description
Marion Coleman
born 1946, Wichita Falls, TX
died 2019, Oakland, CA
Her Heart Was in the Clouds
2012
cotton fabric, cotton thread, and cotton batting
Marion Coleman’s signature narrative quilt collage brings together archival photos, maps, and landscapes to present Bessie “Queen Bess” Coleman (no relation) and how she transformed aviation history.
Born to a family of sharecroppers in Waxahachie, Texas, Bessie Coleman dreamed of navigating the world freely as an aviator beyond the Jim Crow South, and she made her way to France to realize her goal. There she became the first American to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and the first African American and Indigenous woman to earn an aviation pilot’s license. She then made a living performing aerial stunts in barnstorming shows, and she refused to perform at venues that did not admit Black people. On April 30, 1926, Coleman died after an equipment malfunction caused her plane to crash during a performance. Journalist Ida B. Wells presided over Coleman’s funeral, attended by thousands of mourners on Chicago’s South Side.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Michael Humphreys, 2023.40.14
We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts of Black Women Artists, 2025