1980
2010.014.0012

Beginning with the first quilt she completed in 1956 for her Master’s degree in design at Stanford University, Jean Ray Laury sought to blur the lines between fine art (painting and sculpture) and decorative art (fiber, wood, glass, ceramic). She brought an artist’s approach to all her work in many media. As she developed her own artistic vision, Laury not only participated in the late 1950s revitalization of American craft, but also became a role model for her own and future generations. Although she continued to work in other media, by the late 1970s she was focused primarily on quiltmaking.

Throughout her career, Laury advocated for original design. In "Persephone's Spring, Laury used lively, abstracted, biomorphic shapes to depict the Earth's springtime re-awakening, which is signaled in Greek myth by the joyous return of Persephone, daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter, who spends her winters as the wife of Hades in the underworld.