Details

Title

My house is Clean Enought to Be healty and it dirty Enought to Be happy

Artist/Maker

Nellie Mae Rowe (American, 1900–1982)

Date

1978–1982

Medium

Crayon and pencil on paper

Dimensions

18 x 24 inches

Credit

Gift of Judith Alexander

Accession #

2003.146

On View

Currently not on view

“I kept house long enough, I don’t want to be bothered by nobody ’cept self,” was how Rowe put her decision not to marry for a third time nor to seek further employment as a domestic worker. She got a kick out of household goods that cleverly and joyfully articulated the easing of domestic duties, like a napkin she saw at her niece’s that bore the phrase that is the title of this work.

Image Copyright

© Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/High Museum of Art, Atlanta.