In our embroidery sessions, Antonia showed an image of an embroidery sampler a girl made in the 1800s. It was similar to this one:
We discussed how the girl reappropriated the practice of embroidery and turned it into a political statement. We also discussed Carmen Serratos work, which seemed very pertinent. She embroidered a tortilla as part of her series «Mi American Sueño» (2019):
I too wanted to resignify the act of embroidering and the act of making tortillas and combine both. I went back to what I had written when I replaced Monet’s water lily pads with many blue tortillas:
I love water lilies. They grow from mud. Earth and water. They float. They are resilient. I love blue tortillas. They are an in-between colour. Blue and brown. Earth and water.
I remembered seeing the sea in Aberdeen for the first time. It too was an in-between colour. Not blue, not brown. I found that colour again when I photographed the tortillas I was making, so I embroidered a fresh, blue tortilla with this phrase: «This is the color of the sea here» in Spanish.
Maxim Zaragoza 