Style Imitating Art | The Liberation of Aunt Jemima by Betye Saar

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was my turn to choose the art and I wanted something related to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. since we recently celebrated his birthday in the Untied States. At first, I had settled on Jacob Lawrence’s Soldiers and Students but then I found Betye Saar’s The Liberation of Aunt Jemima and it spoke to me so much more. The 1972 mixed media assemblage was inspired by the assassination of MLK Jr. According to Wikipedia, the artist “wanted to promote support for political independence and break stereotypes used to describe Black women.” It is a powerful piece with an even more powerful message. 

I also chose this work because I kind of love Aunt Jemima. When I was a young child, my grandmother’s favorite retort to any kid complaint referred to “our Aunt Jemima”. For example, if I complained that I was bored, my Grammy would respond with, “Your Aunt Jemima’s bored.” If I whined that I was tired, Grammy would reply, “Your Aunt Jemima’s tired.” And so on. Sometimes she shortened her response to a simple, “Ack. Your Aunt Jemima!” I have no idea where that phrase came from or what she meant but I do know that for most of my childhood I thought I actually had an Aunt Jemima!

The Artwork

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima by Betye Saar

About the Artist: Betye Saar

Betye Irene Brown was born on July 30, 1926, in Los Angeles, California, to Jefferson Maze Brown and Beatrice Lillian Parson, a couple who had met while attending the University of California, Los Angeles. Betye spent the early years of her life in Los Angeles. When her father died in 1931, her mother moved the family (Betye and her sister and brother) to their paternal grandmother’s house in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Later they moved to Pasadena, California, to live with Betye’s maternal great-aunt.

During her childhood, Betye collected various ephemera and enjoyed creating and repairing objects which eventually led to her first college courses in art at Pasadena City College. After winning a tuition award for minority students, Betye transferred to her parents’ alma mater, the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in design in 1947. She continued her graduate studies at California State University, Long Beach and Northridge, the University of Southern California, and the American Film Institute. She met and married her husband Richard Saar, a ceramist and art conservator, during her time in graduate school. They have three daughters, Tracye, Alison, and Lezley, who continue the family legacy in art. Betye is still actively creating art at 99 years old. She lives in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles where she has resided for the past six decades.

Before pursuing her passion for art, Betye was a social worker. She was 32 years old in 1958 when she began her graduate studies towards a degree in teaching design. After taking an elective class in printmaking, she shifted her direction from design to fine arts. She began collecting racist imagery for her earliest works and continues to collect similar items today. She was inspired to create mixed media assemblages from found objects that made powerful social commentaries. As a proud black American woman raised by another proud black American woman, Betye was taught dignity and poise which led to the reclamation of the black female body being one of the most dominant and important themes in her work.

During the 1970s, Saar joined the Black Arts Movement which greatly influenced the purpose of her work. Her art is considered highly political because it challenges negative stereotypes about African Americans while critiquing anti-Black racism in America.

Betye Saar has won numerous awards and honors with the most recent being the Art Basel Award in 2025. Check out her website for information about current projects and exhibitions.

About the Art: The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

“The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” is a 1972 found object assemblage by Betye Saar that was inspired by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her first explicitly political piece, it expresses black female empowerment in the reclamation of the Aunt Jemima image as a symbol of liberation. This article on SmartHistory.com explains the artwork and its message so much better than I can. I encourage you to read it. There is specific purpose and very powerful meaning behind every detail of this artwork.

The mixed media objects are assembled inside a glass covered shadow box that measures 11 3/4 in. x 8 in. x 3/4 in. (29.85 cm x 20.3 cm x 1.9 cm). Secured with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” is now part of the permanent collection at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) at the University of California, Berkeley.

About My Outfit

I had already chosen the artwork for this round of SIA when I spotted this red, white, and blue floral dress on a recent thrifting adventure. When I bought the dress, I hadn’t even connected it to the artwork. I just really liked the dress. After washing it and hanging it with my lightweight dresses to be forgotten until spring, it jumped back out at me when I started planning my outfit for this challenge. The silhouette of the dress as well as the red background with the blue and white flowers is very similar to Aunt Jemima’s red dress with the blue and yellow flowers.

Since it is very cold and snowy here, I layered a black turtleneck, black arm warmers, black tights, and my new black cowgirl boots underneath the breezy dress. To mimic Aunt Jemima’s yellow neckerchief, I tied a small black and yellow floral print scarf around my neck and then I added a bit more yellow with my crocheted sunflower earrings.

Of course I needed a hat. It is snowing outside. Plus Aunt Jemima is wearing a red and white gingham head scarf. I thought my dark red mushroom hat made a nice substitute for a head scarf. However, to get some gingham into my outfit, I layered on my black and red gingham button down shirt.

The final touch was my red plaid coat to represent the repeated squares that make up the background of the shadow box. For my feature photo, I posed like Aunt Jemima in front of my garage door which features a square pattern as well. Coincidentally, the ground was covered in snow to represent the cotton in the shadow box, my broom is green like Aunt Jemima’s, and my husband let me borrow his gun for the perfect Style Imitating Art pose.

I hope you have enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. If you want to play along and create your own outfit inspired by powerful artwork, I will feature you in my gallery post on Wednesday, January 28, 2026. Just be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 27, 2026. In the meantime, be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation as well as Marsha’s take on it. 

Happy styling, my friends!

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee