Abuela

This is fiber art of an Hispanic woman sitting in an open window of an old adobe home. Her demeanor is contemplative as she looks outside the window.

I created this piece of art in 2010. My husband, Jimmy, and I are New Mexico ranchers. Our ranches are fairly remote and there are ruins of old buildings dating back to the early 1800’s scattered thru our ranches. This adobe building is an old church constructed in the early 1800’s and abandoned in the early 1900’s. Because New Mexico is so dry, there is still some aqua paint on the window frame. I took this woman’s picture at the International Folk Art Festival in Santa Fe in 2009. Through some tricks in Photoshop, I put this woman inside the old church. If we could look back in time to the mid 19th century, we might have seen her sitting in this open window contemplating her family and the day ahead. Living in this remote portion of New Mexico would not have been easy, but with family near, it would have been a happy place.