“My great-grandmother Minnie Bell was called “Big Mama” even though she was so tiny that her wedding band fits my pinky finger, and her apron fit my daughter when she wore it as part of an elementary-school history day event. Big Mama’s apron is plain but pretty, a working apron that I’m sure she sewed herself because she was a quilter as well as, according to my grandmother, an excellent cook. To make ends meet for her nine children during the Great Depression, Big Mama cooked and served lunch at her home every day for women who worked in the textile factory in Bremen, Georgia. Her husband Tom was the sheriff - and also the cab driver. He owned one of the only automobiles in town. Big Mama raised - and wrung the necks of the chickens she fried and hoed. She tilled and tended the garden that grew the vegetables she prepared and served. I often wonder if this single apron that passed down to me must have been a favorite of hers. How many mornings was it tied around her waist? How many times did she wipe her flour-covered hands over its soft cotton? Did she wear it the day her husband had to arrest two of his own sons for bootlegging during Prohibition? Did she wear it as she tended her youngest, fallen fatally ill during a flu epidemic? How many nights did she take it off and shake it out before she must have dropped, exhausted, into bed? What stories, what dreams, what hopes could this apron tell me about Big Mama if only, somehow, it could talk?” —Cheryl Fries
Cheryl is Pat’s good friend who was also involved in this project. Thanks, Cheryl, for your beautiful story about this apron. 

 “Well, out of a bin, this apron appeared and found a new home!” — Sally Fraser

Every Tuesday, Sally brings a different vintage apron to wear while creating her art in the Bunkhouse, a magical place outside Austin. This one, in particular, invokes the old “Bib Apron” that provides ample coverage for the torso and protects the clothing very well. It comes with a bow around the neck, ties around the waist, and a hem that ends near the knee. The edges are finished with biased binding.

In the 1960s —when women no longer wanted to use an apron that represented the domestic ideals— the bib apron became the most-used apron and is now offered in a multitude of variations, colors, detailing and fabrications. The bib apron is known today as the “French chef’s apron” or a “barbecue apron,” too.

At the end of the 1960s, the very idea of being a housewife seemed dull when women sought satisfaction and reward outside the home. The psychedelic forms and colors, like sunshine yellow, vibrant orange of that time were always intriguing to me. During the hippie era, the apron became a symbol of women's submission. Aprons were suddenly seen as old-fashioned clothes worn by grandmothers and fashion fans. In the 1970s, with the women liberation movement, the apron fell into disuse.

The apron in this painting is a 1970s classic. It does not symbolize the submission of women, although "El Delantal" became a garment that men wore at home proudly while mastering the barbecue.

Today, aprons are back in a big way, with the increased popularity of cooking and the back-to-the-kitchen movement. Fashionable boutiques offer handsomely made aprons created from different attractive and often unusual fabrics with whimsical decorations and a new generation has discovered the necessity and utility of aprons.

This brings me to a modern Colombian orchard, with trees and shrubs of fruits like oranges, bananas, papayas, guavas, and lots of other tropical fruits.

Aprons are and will remain sentimental favorites. Not a woman was groomed without one or more of them – because they used to have several models depending on the tasks they performed.

The apron was the first thing girls learned to make in home economics classes. They added decorations to increase the value and price when they wanted to raise money at a craft bazaar.

I love sewing, and in my younger years, sometimes I used to sew my clothes. With "La Costurera," I remember those wonderful years, and the flirty hostess apron was part of my move. I imagined how to impress the guests at a party, hum! What fun.

There have always been many trades that have used the apron as a work uniform: waiters, baristas, cooks, nurses, domestic workers, hairdressers, shoemakers, florists and many more jobs. By in the 1980s, working women spent less time in the kitchen and new apron fashions were not present in stores. In the 21st century the apron began to be used inside and outside the kitchen, but it has been completely renovated. Today, aprons are a sign of identity of each trade and the image of the job.

The Garden party apron is simple and invites us to garden all day, with pretty paths, flowers, and happiness. 

Every artist wants to have one at home, workshop, or school. Always handy: it must hang on a hook on the wall in an easily accessible place. He sometimes assumes our personality, and occasionally it becomes like another crazy little painting, as we do brushstrokes on the canvas, and then we stroke and clean the brush on him, my delantal - my apron.

Since 1999, when I started painting, the apron has been there with me. I don't have one only, I have many, in different colors, styles, with lots of stories of places, studios, and art friends that have been around me over the years. There's one apron, in particular, that has a significant sentimental value, and it's not one that we see here. It’s my mom’s apron; he’s like a little bit of mom with me, like when we were together in Colombia. I think that's why I wasn't able to interpret it. Maybe one day I will paint it or perhaps not.

In my study between my art and me, "The Artist," —my apron was an inseparable companion and constant source of inspiration during these last two months with this series that I enjoyed working very much while learning about its history