Rosie Lee Tompkins is the assumed name

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 of a widely acclaimed Richmond, California

Richmond, California

Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...

 quiltmaker. She was born Effie Mae Howard to a sharecropping family in Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

. Ms. Tompkins said she believed God directed her hand and her art. One of her more well-known works, "Three Sixes," involves three relatives whose birthdays include the number 6.. Tompkins' quilts have been shown at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC and one image is available on their web site.

'Tompkins' textile art

Textile art

Textile art may refer to:*Any one of the textile arts, those arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects*Fiber art, the creation of fine art using textile arts techniques and materials...

[works] ... demolish the category'

'These quilts are works of such distinction and devotion that they supersede established art-historical categories, forcing reviewers to retreat to that dumbfunded admiration that attracted us to art in the first place'