Artist Statement
Nothing piques my curiosity more than textiles. I’m fascinated by thread, by how thousands of individual strands come together to become fabric. I spend long hours handling, studying, and experimenting with textiles; that curiosity is at the core of my practice. I grew up in Peru, where textiles are deeply embedded in the culture. They hold history and heritage, existing prominently in museums as well as in homes. That upbringing, combined with more than a decade working as a fashion designer, eventually led me to pull garments out of their commercial context and use them to tell stories through my work.
Where I once painted garments as subject matter, I now sew physical garments directly onto canvas. I deconstruct, sew, and paint the garments, incorporating other materials such as hand-painted threads and crystal beads when they serve the story I’m building through the work.
These physical processes let me build scenes around memories of my childhood in Peru, my move to the United States, and the emotions tied to both. I keep coming back to button-down shirts because of how easily they shift between gender, class, status, and culture. The same shirt means something different depending on who wears it and where.
As garments have become physical parts of the work, I’ve become increasingly interested in what happens when they move beyond the boundaries of the canvas and begin to occupy space. I’m exploring drape, tension, and weight as ways of changing the form of the work and how the viewer encounters it. I want to push clothing beyond subject matter, allowing the textile itself to shape the physical structure of the work.