Aminah Robinson was an inspiring fabric artist who created beautiful artworks based on her life story. Aminah was an Ohio artist who is not very well-known amongst my middle school students so I chose her life story and her artwork as a beginning point for our fiber-based lesson. Our city is fortunate to have an Aminah piece hanging in a local museum which made the artist even more inspiring to my students.

My 6th grade students listened to Aminah’s artistic process and her use of ‘hogmawg’ and ‘rag non non’ as she created each life experience and related these stories to the viewer. Inspired by several of Aminah’s animal fabric works, the 6th graders focused on an endangered animal and depicted these animals using acrylic paint, fabric pieces and thread to intricately show their concern for the species. Aminah and her fabric collages were such a wonderful inspiration to our story-telling artwork experiences!