Artist Statement
One might reflect upon the Bible verse “Blessed are those who weep” when assessing my stitched fabric wall hangings. It is my hope that these artworks evoke empathetic sadness in viewers, leaving them buoyed by the commemorations and reassured by a shared awareness of events in our world.

I use the techniques of machine quilting with applique’ to construct compositions in layered cotton fabric. The iconography of some wall hangings recalls the spontaneous memorials that communities erect after untimely deaths, with flowers, toys, and mementos often flanking portraits of the honored subject.

The cruelty and folly of gun violence in its obstinate forms is a recurring thread. There is no greater public health issue affecting children than gun violence. Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States.

My current work brings attention to the challenges faced by families confronted by immigration enforcement.

Artmaking is my form of activism.

Artist Bio
Jo-Ann Morgan is Professor Emerita of African American Studies and Art History, Western Illinois University. She authored The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture (2029) and Uncle Tom’s Cabin as Visual Culture (2007), winner of the Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship in 2008. Prior to becoming a scholar of African American art and culture, Morgan received her MFA from the University of Wyoming in Studio Art and remained active as a visual artist while a doctoral student at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles; PhD, 1997). After two decades of university teaching, in 2020 Morgan reestablished a full-time studio practice. Since then, her work has been shown in over twenty solo exhibitions at community art centers and at colleges and universities throughout the country. A retrospective selection of thirty artworks, titled “The Mourning After,” was mounted at the Franklin G. Burroughs and Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2026.