Liberty Worth

&

Where We Hope To Be

Artist
Liberty Worth

"quote from Liberty goes here"

Series
Where We Have Been
& Where We Hope To Be
2020How Long, Oh Lord (I have a Dream)
This was the piece I made after the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. The concept of Black lives being taken by white supremacy was obviously not new, but this was the first time I found a creative outlet for what I call the “cultural grief” I witnessed in my community and felt in my own heart at that moment. I used my improvisational sewing techniques to create a teardrop that, to me, represented the tears of all races, joining together, longing for an end to something that has gone on too long.
About "
cotton, wool, wallpaper scraps - mounted onto panel board
14" x 14"
Purchase
about"Into the Deep, Unto the New" is an exhibition that navigates the continuum of collective healing from racial trauma.
Hosted by Inbreak and Dea Studios is the culminating exhibition of the 2021 Inbreak Residency. This exhibition is a virtual showcase featuring works by Inbreak residents Andrew Nemr, Steve Anthony Johnson, Liberty Worth, and Arneshia Williams. Into the Deep, Unto the New provides a lens through which we see the impassioned overflow from art as practice to art as community-building in an effort to bravely uncover racialized trauma and to reimagine a post-racialized society. The reception will feature a brief introduction to the exhibition, interactive activities, and a toast to the artists.
The Inbreak Residency is an incubator for artists of any discipline, writers, curators and preachers to foster a brave space that facilitates a raw exploration of art, faith, and race in the United States. Over the course of three months, residents engage in texts, open dialogue, and somatic practice to metabolize themes surrounding racial trauma in the U.S. Each resident is encouraged to reimagine their individual role in generating social healing through self-led community projects using their practice and tools provided by the residency.
artists The work of Marcus is immediately identifiable in it’s ability to tell a narrative that is at once evocative, gripping, and uncommonly romantic.
2018
Grand Prize Lux → Consumed
Grand Prize Lux → Terroir
Lux → Travel Design Awards

2017
Applied Arts → Make-Up
Applied Arts → Interior design
Lux → Interior design

2016
Grand Prize Lux → Agnus Dei
Lux → Food Carving
Applied Arts → Food Carving
Lux → Pur Vodka
Lux → Formes et Réflexions
Applied Arts → Shapes
Lux → Le Beurre allume vos aliments
Lux → Les fromages d’ici
Applied Arts → Les fromages d’ici

Events

  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Head of Design
    2019—Present
  • Some Studio Name
    — Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director
    2015—2019
  • Freelance
    — Graphic Designer, Web Designer
    2012—2015
  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Co-founder
    2012—2015
2020Forward Movement
This quilt “FORWARD MOVEMENT” was made in the summer of 2020 as the protests over police brutality were at their apex. I took my family to a BLM march and we loved on our friends and neighbors but still felt such powerlessness in the face of systemic racism.

Turning to my African fabrics (many of these pieces were scraps from the 1200+ fabric face masks I personally sewed for the pandemic), this piece was my attempt to turn my internal sadness into something constructive.In January of 2020,  I had taught a number of school field trips for Los Angeles schools where we used these same triangle shapes to express ideas, and remembering that project, I took these and began to express my heart for forward movement. As I made this with my hands, I prayed for the descendants of the African continent who need to see breakthrough - forward movement from where they have been.I arranged the arrows moving forward and also looking backwards as a prayer for this to be the time of change.
About "
cotton, African wax prints
46" x 46"
Purchase
2020Hope Deferred
This quilt was a reaction to the chaos of the US presidential election of 2020. What a discouraging sight it was to see the protests and outrage of the summer and to not see a bigger shift in the way it played out.

There is a Proverb that says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” - and that was where my heart was when I made this piece. I had a 4’x3’ piece I had sewn together earlier in the summer, that was made of 1-inch squares of African fabrics. They had been a gift to me from a friend who was forced home from Senegal due to the pandemic. I had sewn them all together as a hope for something constructive, but in my frustration over the fraught political situation in early November, I chopped them up into small triangles and reassembled them into this piece which does appear balanced but hints at chaos.
About "
cotton, African wax prints
45" x 45"
Purchase

Events

  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Head of Design
    2019—Present
  • Some Studio Name
    — Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director
    2015—2019
  • Freelance
    — Graphic Designer, Web Designer
    2012—2015
  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Co-founder
    2012—2015
about"Into the Deep, Unto the New" is an exhibition that navigates the continuum of collective healing from racial trauma.
Hosted by Inbreak and Dea Studios is the culminating exhibition of the 2021 Inbreak Residency. This exhibition is a virtual showcase featuring works by Inbreak residents Andrew Nemr, Steve Anthony Johnson, Liberty Worth, and Arneshia Williams. Into the Deep, Unto the New provides a lens through which we see the impassioned overflow from art as practice to art as community-building in an effort to bravely uncover racialized trauma and to reimagine a post-racialized society. The reception will feature a brief introduction to the exhibition, interactive activities, and a toast to the artists.
The Inbreak Residency is an incubator for artists of any discipline, writers, curators and preachers to foster a brave space that facilitates a raw exploration of art, faith, and race in the United States. Over the course of three months, residents engage in texts, open dialogue, and somatic practice to metabolize themes surrounding racial trauma in the U.S. Each resident is encouraged to reimagine their individual role in generating social healing through self-led community projects using their practice and tools provided by the residency.
artists The work of Marcus is immediately identifiable in it’s ability to tell a narrative that is at once evocative, gripping, and uncommonly romantic.
2018
Grand Prize Lux → Consumed
Grand Prize Lux → Terroir
Lux → Travel Design Awards

2017
Applied Arts → Make-Up
Applied Arts → Interior design
Lux → Interior design

2016
Grand Prize Lux → Agnus Dei
Lux → Food Carving
Applied Arts → Food Carving
Lux → Pur Vodka
Lux → Formes et Réflexions
Applied Arts → Shapes
Lux → Le Beurre allume vos aliments
Lux → Les fromages d’ici
Applied Arts → Les fromages d’ici

Events

  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Head of Design
    2019—Present
  • Some Studio Name
    — Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director
    2015—2019
  • Freelance
    — Graphic Designer, Web Designer
    2012—2015
  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Co-founder
    2012—2015
Project

Where We Have Been & Where We Hope To Be Collaborations

About

"Where We Have Been and Where We Hope to Be" is Liberty's current series of quilts created as a meditation on grief, hopes, and history in response to the murder of George Floyd and protests in 2020. She constructs these quilts using scraps of African fabrics in simple blocks. Early 2021 she extended this practice and created a series of videos and materials from her own work and some of the materials from the Inbreak residency. She then pitched the series to a small diverse group of friends and colleagues, inviting them to collaborate with her.

The participants created works of their own. Each went through the steps of learning the materials (Session 1), mapping their heritage (Session 2), honoring their grief (Session 3) and investigating hope (Session 4). Digital artists turned the project digital, writers wrote profound statements and visual artists pushed boundaries. This is their work. Visit each one to view their paper and digital quilts and the quilts Liberty created in response to their works. Each artist has written a corresponding statement about their work.

Follow the project on Instagram @havebeenandhopetobe.

about"Into the Deep, Unto the New" is an exhibition that navigates the continuum of collective healing from racial trauma.
Hosted by Inbreak and Dea Studios is the culminating exhibition of the 2021 Inbreak Residency. This exhibition is a virtual showcase featuring works by Inbreak residents Andrew Nemr, Steve Anthony Johnson, Liberty Worth, and Arneshia Williams. Into the Deep, Unto the New provides a lens through which we see the impassioned overflow from art as practice to art as community-building in an effort to bravely uncover racialized trauma and to reimagine a post-racialized society. The reception will feature a brief introduction to the exhibition, interactive activities, and a toast to the artists.
The Inbreak Residency is an incubator for artists of any discipline, writers, curators and preachers to foster a brave space that facilitates a raw exploration of art, faith, and race in the United States. Over the course of three months, residents engage in texts, open dialogue, and somatic practice to metabolize themes surrounding racial trauma in the U.S. Each resident is encouraged to reimagine their individual role in generating social healing through self-led community projects using their practice and tools provided by the residency.
artists The work of Marcus is immediately identifiable in it’s ability to tell a narrative that is at once evocative, gripping, and uncommonly romantic.
2018
Grand Prize Lux → Consumed
Grand Prize Lux → Terroir
Lux → Travel Design Awards

2017
Applied Arts → Make-Up
Applied Arts → Interior design
Lux → Interior design

2016
Grand Prize Lux → Agnus Dei
Lux → Food Carving
Applied Arts → Food Carving
Lux → Pur Vodka
Lux → Formes et Réflexions
Applied Arts → Shapes
Lux → Le Beurre allume vos aliments
Lux → Les fromages d’ici
Applied Arts → Les fromages d’ici

Events

  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Head of Design
    2019—Present
  • Some Studio Name
    — Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director
    2015—2019
  • Freelance
    — Graphic Designer, Web Designer
    2012—2015
  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Co-founder
    2012—2015
2020Divided
This quilt was made as a lament in the aftermath of 2020 - the third quilt in an ongoing series, I had a 4’x3’ piece I had sewn together in the summer of 2020 that was made of 1-inch squares of African fabrics. They had been a gift to me from a friend who was forced home from living in Senegal due to the pandemic. I had sewn the pieces all together as a hope for something constructive, but in my frustration over the fraught political situation in early November 2020, I chopped the piece up into small triangles and reassembled them into work I hoped could be constructive while communicating the chaos; quilts that outwardly seem comforting, but which actually sit in the discomfort of our current times. This piece uses the same cut up triangles and explores the divisions between black and white while offering a space to contemplate where we fall on a spectrum of understanding. Each quilt in this series is offered in hopes of healing, even as we must walk through grief and pain to get to a new hopeful place.
About "
cotton and wool, using African wax prints
46" x 46"
Purchase
2021Privilege
Privilege doesn’t see what it has, it holds the microphone and doesn’t even know it exists or holds the spotlight.

One of the biggest abuses of privilege is to deny it exists. Admission is the doorway to dismantling privilege.

This piece was constructed from the textiles of many different cultures represented in the United States that are considered minorities - but they are being overshadowed by a story of whiteness that doesn't respond to or take into account the other perspectives. The whiteness is oblivious to the beauty of diversity. It doesn't matter if it's intentional or if it's accidental. Great wealth, strength and beauty are lost when one voice dominates the narrative.

Looking around, however, those with privilege can begin to pull the threads and see that there is great beauty, wholeness and healing to be discovered when humility and honoring others take the stage, when we see the infinite worth and value of each voice.
About "
cotton, wool, silk, brocade
54" x 54"
Purchase

Events

  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Head of Design
    2019—Present
  • Some Studio Name
    — Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director
    2015—2019
  • Freelance
    — Graphic Designer, Web Designer
    2012—2015
  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Co-founder
    2012—2015
about"Into the Deep, Unto the New" is an exhibition that navigates the continuum of collective healing from racial trauma.
Hosted by Inbreak and Dea Studios is the culminating exhibition of the 2021 Inbreak Residency. This exhibition is a virtual showcase featuring works by Inbreak residents Andrew Nemr, Steve Anthony Johnson, Liberty Worth, and Arneshia Williams. Into the Deep, Unto the New provides a lens through which we see the impassioned overflow from art as practice to art as community-building in an effort to bravely uncover racialized trauma and to reimagine a post-racialized society. The reception will feature a brief introduction to the exhibition, interactive activities, and a toast to the artists.
The Inbreak Residency is an incubator for artists of any discipline, writers, curators and preachers to foster a brave space that facilitates a raw exploration of art, faith, and race in the United States. Over the course of three months, residents engage in texts, open dialogue, and somatic practice to metabolize themes surrounding racial trauma in the U.S. Each resident is encouraged to reimagine their individual role in generating social healing through self-led community projects using their practice and tools provided by the residency.
artists The work of Marcus is immediately identifiable in it’s ability to tell a narrative that is at once evocative, gripping, and uncommonly romantic.
2018
Grand Prize Lux → Consumed
Grand Prize Lux → Terroir
Lux → Travel Design Awards

2017
Applied Arts → Make-Up
Applied Arts → Interior design
Lux → Interior design

2016
Grand Prize Lux → Agnus Dei
Lux → Food Carving
Applied Arts → Food Carving
Lux → Pur Vodka
Lux → Formes et Réflexions
Applied Arts → Shapes
Lux → Le Beurre allume vos aliments
Lux → Les fromages d’ici
Applied Arts → Les fromages d’ici

Events

  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Head of Design
    2019—Present
  • Some Studio Name
    — Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director
    2015—2019
  • Freelance
    — Graphic Designer, Web Designer
    2012—2015
  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Co-founder
    2012—2015
Works
Liberty Worth
Liberty Worth
About "
Residency Year: 2021

Liberty Worth is a native of Los Angeles- a city of grit, diversity and great natural beauty. Influenced by the power of art and nature to soothe trauma and bring peace, she creates works that reflect natural wonder and quiet beauty from both new and discarded or repurposed materials. Her work invites the viewer to come and rest in a place of quiet healing while bringing in bold color and intense patterning, reflecting the movement of the city and finding the quiet spaces in between. Collected textiles from diverse cultures and travels around the world reflect the artist’s passion and celebration of the diverse city she was born into and loves deeply.
Project"
In 2020, I found myself in an unknown place as an artist. Having a background in textile design sewing, I joined the ranks of the mask makers, making over 1200 masks in 10 months. Artistic expression slipped away as I quarantined and watched the world outside become more and more intense.

In May, the murder of George Floyd rocked the nation and I joined my neighbors in weeping and protesting, but as a white woman, I lacked a way to express grief in a way that did not create additional weight for my friends of color.

Seeking solace in art as a way of dealing with grief, I turned to the least complicated of my art forms - quilting - using scraps of African fabrics in simple blocks. I constructed a quilt as a prayer - meditating on grief, hopes, and history as I stitched. After I finished “Forward Movement” - there was more grief to uncover as we passed through an election unlike any before. “Hope Deferred” and “Divided” became expressions of the chaos. “Privilege” emerged - these simple shapes were developing into a language I felt comfortable using to express even the most uncomfortable topics. The “comforter” was capable of holding “discomfort.”
Participants "
Peque Brown
Dan Hendricksen
Marcela Khedry Ibanez
Creedance Kresch
Ariel Okamoto
Cherise Rollins

Events With Liberty

  • Some Studio Name
    — Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director
    2015—2019
  • Freelance
    — Graphic Designer, Web Designer
    2012—2015
  • Some Studio Name
    — Designer, Co-founder
    2012—2015