HiLaNdo fiNo, iterations

This is a project I have been involved for ten years now. Textile based, women's groups that get together in order to share sewing, ideas, feelings, food and drink, not necessarily in that order. The craft practice gives way to an array of participatory relational type of encounters, conversations and questions that have made us stay together. I have started various groups in San Francisco, California, Engabao, Puerto el Morro, and Quito Ecuador. I am still participant of two of them, and working on different projects at a time. The San Francisco crew  has gone various transformations as we age and see life sometimes overwhelming us with sad and devastating happenings that touch our lives profoundly. We are now involved in the Vision quilt, against gun violence, working each on a piece that will make part of a greater piece. We are also working on a longer term project that plans to be part of our collaboration with other artists in the South of France. The Puerto el Morro initiative did not take hold, as well as Engabao. The Quito Group nonetheless is still alive and kicking with a solid artistic collective working on a pretty interesting follow up of the Doll House project, now centered on the theme of botanics and the Amazon. 

First collective quilt at La Alameda Quito 2007

Josie Caceres, part of the Quito collective 2007

Gifts, a project with women from La Magdalena, a neighborhood in Quito Ecuador, 2007

                    Engabao, from Franja Arte Comunidad, Engabao, Ecuador 2011/2012

Food always gives us a place to encounter, 2007

Project Doll House  Quito Ecuador 2010

Puerto el Morro Ecuador 2009

The term successful in terms of production is pretty questionable here. All these projects have in common the capacity to generate a safe space of trust and wonderment, a relation that could endure and be transformative. The space and time to share conversation and meaningful engagement. They all share the idea of adult "play" as vehicle for further  questions and conversations. They are all succeeding in bringing women of all ages to talk and create their envisioning of present and future.