For the past five months, I’ve been
learning from local artisans, how to make traditional textiles with my back
strapped to a hand-made loom, tensioning a textile with hand-carved, wood tools
and my body weight. Upon my arrival in Peru, I expected to pick up the craft
quickly and progress in stride, unencumbered by Western expectations of time,
fast Internet or a cell phone. I realized just how wrong I was when, during the
first hour of my lessons in weaving, I experienced the bottom half of my body
go numb, while my back creaked in terrible pain. I was completely humbled by
this first experience as I realized just how flexible I would have to be on this
journey toward learning an ancient craft in the high-altitude communities
surrounding Ollantaytambo, my home base. It wouldn’t come easy.
My
awareness and appreciation for hand-made textile artisans were already extraordinary.
Now, knowing how much dedication is necessary to make such beautiful things, I’m
inspired to model my own practice as an artist after that of a Peruvian
back-strap weaver’s. Whatever the initial struggle or pain involved in the
practice, in a truly experienced weaver, one can notice their movements turn
into a dance and watch as their mind completely focuses in on the moment in
front of them, the only moment that matters.
I continue my Fulbright project in
my studio in Ollantaytambo, working and re-working textiles and decompressing
my spine by walking through the immense landscape surrounding me. Through this
process, I connect with the generations of women and men that have come before
me and have found themselves exactly where I am. It is comforting to know that
I am not the first one to have struggled through learning a new craft; that a
lineage of makers exists of which I am only one.
