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| Elizabeth Jenkins
Elizabeth Jenkins has been creating hand-woven apparel for women in
Taos, New Mexico since 1978. Her palette of yarns in silk, cotton,
rayon, wool and mohair is brilliant. Her styles are contemporary. Her
influences are from indigenous cultures around the world: Indonesia,
Mexico, Guatemala, Thailand and Bolivia.
Artist Statement My work is about color and texture. I
have been weaving fabric and making garments since 1979. I started
collecting textiles in the mid 1970's. At the time, I traveled
extensively in Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. The
connection between hand-woven textiles and the Indian's lives and
culture fascinated and intrigued me. It was at this time that I decided
to become a weaver. I moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1978 and bought a
loom. I learned the basics of loom weaving in Vermont in 1975 but my
sense of color and contrast came from my connection to indigenous
cultures. In 1990 and 1991, I traveled to Indonesia with my family to
collect and study the textiles there. Later, in 2002, I made a similar
trip to Thailand.
I am basically a self-taught weaver. The creative process in my work is
very intuitive and non-linear. My sense of color is connected to my
spirit and the realization that color is life.
Presently I am doing a discharge dye process on the woven fabric off of
the loom. This process adds patterns and complexity of design to the
fabric and gives it a multilayered appearance.
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