Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Descansos




Over the past 2 years at least, I have been working on a large wall size piece that began with an interesting approach to make circles and background strips and cut and resew. The technique was in the American Quilter (from AQS). My pieces ended up looking like crosses and the colors were very southwestern. Two details from the piece are shown. But, as I was trying to figure out a name for the piece, I ended up on a journey of research on Descansos. Those are the crosses that are along the roadside marking the place were someone died. The origin of descansos is in the southwest and marks resting places between the church and the graveyard. Since the person who has already expressed intent to buy this fiber art piece plans to use it in her meditation space, the thought that these crosses on the quilt are resting places for focus and reflection and meditation seemed appropriate. For some really nice written text and black and white images of descansos, see http://webpages.charter.net/dnance/descansos/