Surrounded by design elements inspired by actual shapes woven into her baskets, Delores Patencio, member of Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and master basket weaver peers out at the viewer. She was one of many women who honed their basket making skills from childhood, developing a close relationship with their natural environment, creating vessels designed to carry burdens. The art and skill of basket making came close to being sacrificed to the advance of the settlers’ alien civilization. Eventually the settlers recognized the skill and artistry required to create these beautiful baskets, and tribal women began to create baskets for the Curio Trade, recognizing how to have their designs appeal to a non-native consumer, utilizing traditional techniques, relying on what their mothers’ and culture taught while developing artistic expression within the baskets. Their baskets became emblems of heritage, statements about cultural evolution, sought after by collectors, dealers, museums. What started as an art created out of necessity evolved into a form of expression. Many of these women are portrayed in my Native Basket Weavers Series. This is one of those paintings.
Surrounded by design elements inspired by actual shapes woven into her baskets, Delores Patencio, member of Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and master basket weaver peers out at the viewer. She was one of many women who honed their basket making skills from childhood, developing a close relationship with their natural environment, creating vessels designed to carry burdens. The art and skill of basket making came close to being sacrificed to the advance of the settlers’ alien civilization. Eventually the settlers recognized the skill and artistry required to create these beautiful baskets, and tribal women began to create baskets for the Curio Trade, recognizing how to have their designs appeal to a non-native consumer, utilizing traditional techniques, relying on what their mothers’ and culture taught while developing artistic expression within the baskets. Their baskets became emblems of heritage, statements about cultural evolution, sought after by collectors, dealers, museums. What started as an art created out of necessity evolved into a form of expression. Many of these women are portrayed in my Native Basket Weavers Series. This is one of those paintings.