Trail Talks - The Beauty of Basketry and Tending the Land by Tima Link Lotah Member of The Owl Clan and Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation
Event Details
Timara Lotah Link
Shmuwich Chumash
In my language, I am an ’alaleqwel, a maker, and I am much more than just a textile artist—I am a rich tapestry of human connections—to the past, to the present, and to the future. As a textile artist, I make things that people explore with their hands. Texture, shape, weight, and most importantly, emotional memories are what an object can pull from the person cradling it. When I weave, my skill and patterns and process all come from a life intertwined with native plants. I know their seasons, their strengths and weaknesses, their habitats and families, and most of all, I know they welcome my gifts of water, my songs, my digging, pruning, cutting, tugging, cursing, laughing…
Working with native plants means that I must adjust/respond to their inherent “perfect imperfections” of form, shape, quality, and availability. It teaches me patience and lets my work grow organically; my finished work is never exactly the shape, pattern, or even function that I had planned. Native plants teach me to let go….
“Let go of what you can’t control. Channel
that energy into living fully in the now.” – Karen Salmansohn
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.
