Textiles, contemplation and slowing down in Victoria Villasana’s Art
Villasana's work has a brilliance about it. In both senses of the word. I have been drawn to the textiles she utilizes to enhance her subject’s vibrancy for a long time. She has a distinctive style, which is always interesting to me, when an artist really settles into a style. It can feel stagnant. But Villasana’s work never does to me.
How is it that a small embroidery, a few threads, of a few colors, amplifies the story of a life quite as much as her pieces do? What does a textile embellishment add to an image? Obviously, it is more than dimension and color. How is it that Villasana's work fills out the lines of history, gives depth, offers counter narratives in just a few diagonal gestures of thread?
Here’s her website for you to explore. As you do, I encourage you to react instinctually to it. Where in history does it point you? What does it reveal?
The textiles almost feel like an invitation to look closely at the life the subject leads, to re-imagine it. To imagine what the subject’s values are. What she feels. What wisdom is carried in her body. How her stories are kept in a piece of cloth.
Incorporating textiles in your art collection is an incredibly way to add dimensionality. Literally, in that it is textured, pops out, but also figuratively. Textiles have an incredibly rich history, across the world.
Here’s an article from Sotheby’s about threads as women’s articulation of meaning in history.
Here’s an article about contemporary textile artists.
“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”