ARTIST STATEMENT

The influence of my roots, my Fathers Indigenous Aymara people, tends to direct my efforts toward community minded art and collaboration. Through community based creativity, one can grow in many ways to manifest for the betterment of humanity. I do not feel that I have reached my ideals yet; it is an evolution through informal study of distinct culture and their diverse expressions. To use creativity for the common good is the underlying ideal of my art and life. With these motivations in mind I have realized the central position of the artist in all societies. Creativity is central to humankind’s expression across the globe and is something that makes us human. Hand weaving is the current framework for my expression. Though, the form my work takes is totally dependent upon necessity and situation. This fluidity of expression is necessary to communicate successfully to any peoples of Mother Earth’s great diversity.

I have mostly woven publicly in places where it is an industrialized, consumed and forgotten action. This is too easily accepted, my audience participates out of exoticism, which is the last thing I want. What I didn’t convey through weaving publicly in America is that weaving still functions as a cultural adhesive within indigenous contexts; this is a challenge of great proportion. Bridging huge gaps in space, time and acculturation, it is a lifelong pursuit. I have a long-term vision of weaving publicly in front of people who still do directly relate to it, where it is often stigmatized as archaic or “non-progressive”. This has become a thread of thought and action that I now realize is coming full circle in my life.

I do not claim to know the “end result” to the issues and experiences that motivate me. The work is not about solution or results as tangible objects; I believe it goes much deeper than that. I am learning my way toward an understanding and thus evolution of these ideals. I believe that right now is a time in my life to ask questions, to nurture my vision within a steady diet of provocative searching. Doing can only be successful after seeing. It might not happen today, or even next month. I see my future as a connection point, a bridge between my particular cultural dichotomies. I have realized that the best “aid” I could bring to the Aymara is a global awareness, an inversion of my own experience; through meeting my cultural ‘other’ I discovered myself. I distinctly feel that my work begins there on the high Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia, whos people have taught me how to walk in the world.