Page 72 - The Woven Tale Press Vol. IV #10

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“Enrollada en las Sabanas in Spanish means wrapped in bed sheets.
It is a metaphor meaning we are trapped in something; that we get entan- gled in the demands of our daily routine.
I get all wrapped up each morning, long before getting to my studio to begin my art work. I get wrapped up in the myriad daily tasks around the house, thinking they will take a few minutes when, in fact, they take hours. I orga- nize, I clean, I feed, I fold, I make, I bake, I shop, I mop, I open, I close and nally I am ready to go to my studio!
But by this time I’m already hungry as it is almost lunch time, so I make some- thing to eat, after which I feel a little tired, so I take a brief nap and then nally can get down to work.
I was ironing a tablecloth, an old one from the time when we lived in Italy. At that time our table was much smaller, and I asked myself, “why am I doing this?” I was just going to fold it and put it away, since our current table was much longer and a completely different shape from our Italian one. I was organizing once again, after another move, and that is when I had my ‘A-ha’ moment.
I decided I would wrap myself in old bed sheets, photograph myself, and with batik, put the images onto these old pieces of material I don’t need or use anymore. “Of course!”
This is how the idea of making batik pieces out of bed sheets was born; how I created ‘All Wrapped Up.’
The project, ‘All Wrapped Up’ is an exercise of disengagement. It is an effort to “unwrap” myself from the myriad tasks that repeat themselves day af-
ter day, week after week, and constitute my daily existence. After having wrapped myself up and photographed myself, then having drawn, cut, taped, glued, waxed, dyed, removed the wax, gone to the dry cleaners, ironed sev- eral times and nally hung the piece, I realized that I actually love the daily tasks! They are a source of relaxation, and often the center of my inspiration.”
FernAndA vArgAs