60” X 34”
THE EVOLUTION OF A PARTICULAR PIG
The story of these three pigs depicted in my quilt begins some 30 or so years ago, in Phenix City, Alabama, the town just across the Chattahoochee River from us here in Columbus, Georgia. Phenix City is known for … well, we probably don’t need to go there just now. Let’s just say that ONE OF the things Phenix City is known for is its barbeque. There are probably more barbeque places per capita in Phenix City than in any other town or city in the U.S. – maybe even in the world. One such bbq joint was the one, some 30 or so years ago, that was located on the northwest corner of Highway 280 (otherwise known as the Colon Bypass) and 14th Street. I thought the place was Bill & Neil’s, but Fred, my husband and native Phenix Citizen so therefore expert, disagrees with me. He says it was named something else. Anyway, this particular bbq joint featured, on its highway-facing wall, three plywood cut-out pigs. Two sported the letter B, and one wore the letter Q. I always thought they were the cutest pigs!
Well, at some point back then the bbq joint closed up shop. The building was left vacant, and the pigs were left to fend for themselves. For months those pigs hung there on the side of that building, looking as forlorn as a plywood pig can look. Then, after some time had passed, they began to weather and curl, and eventually and individually they fell to the ground.
It was at this point that we – myself, Fred, and the kids – considered liberating those poor, pitiful pigs, but the time didn’t seem quite right yet. So we waited another while and one day saw that two pigs were gone, and the last pig, a B, was thrown into a brush pile on the edge of the vacant parking lot. We decided it was time to act, and we did indeed liberate that pig.
We took said pig home, cleaned her/him up a bit, and nailed him/her to our dining room wall where for years Lil’ B lived a second life. Eventually, though, time did take its toll, and the pig died again and had to be laid to rest.
Before the pig’s departure, though, daughter Coulter, a developing artist by this time, produced a painting that featured, along with a couple of humans and a bowl of collards, the pig. That painting has since gone to a fine home, but luckily we had photographed the painting, so we still had an image to remind us of him/her.
Fast forward 30 or so years, and the art quilt guild of which I’m a member issued a challenge: “Make a quilt that addresses the theme of TRIOS.” Well, the first idea that popped into my head, and the popping was immediate, was the BBQ pigs. Fortunately I was able to dig up the photo of Coulter’s painting of the one pig, and it was the photo of the painting of the pig that served as a model for the three pigs in this my BBQ Pigs quilt.