Support system

Weaving progress

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.

Día de los Reyes | The bull never wins.

Coffee

This post is to make you all aware of the important competition taking place in my kitchen every morning. 

Refracted light

The hike to Pumamarca: The spanish lost here!

The Spanish DIDN'T WIN HERE!! And I get it, this fortress is situated on the edge of a nice mountain where on a clear day, one can see for miles in every direction. If there were an attack on the city, which there was, there would be at least a days warning. The hike was tough but worthwhile. More beautiful mountainscapes and such! I can't get enough of it obviously.  On another note, there was a small tremor/some sort of geological occurrence today that was a little scary.