One of the upsides of being a project/concept-driven artist is that when I start a new project I have a great excuse to research new-to-me artists. While researching for the Seeing Me self-portraiture project I came across the work of Paula do Prado, a Uraguayan-born artist now living in Australia. Initially, I was drawn into Paula’s work by her fantastic textile masks which made me want to immediately dig out Betty, my vintage sewing machine, and thread her up.
As a migrant myself, I’m always interested in how artists who have moved from their birth homes incorporate their ancestral traditions into work while remaining relevant to their new cultural landscape. Or indeed, how migrant artists might choose to sideline their new cultural landscape and focus on retaining links with their birth homes. Paula’s bio states that her art practice “surfaces the intersections of her African Bantu-Kongo, Iberian and Charrúan ancestral heritage” and she weaves these influences together to create art that sits comfortably within the canon of contemporary Australian art.
“I go by feel”
Paula do Prado
Another aspect of Paula’s work I admire is her dedication to community work. With a practice focused on textile processes, I’m not surprised that community plays an important role in her art as women have always gathered together to stitch, knit, quilt, and share stories. I’ve missed this since I started painting, which makes me think I should pick up a needle and thread again. There’s something beautiful about a room full of womxn chatting, sewing, and going by feel; working out issues in community through intuitive making.
Also inspiring is Paula’s relationship with what she terms her “plantcestors” through which she has been gently and humbly exploring natural dyes from local plants. Her slow, respectful methodology is a far cry from the ways of working of social media “experts” (mostly white women) whose exploitation and commodification of the natural dye movement drove me away from my own investigations a few years ago. If your practice includes plant-derived paints, inks, and dyes, then I think you’ll enjoy what Paula writes in her blog.
Finally, I must say that Paula do Prado’s website is fabulous! I visit a lot of artist websites that are as boring as heck, just a long page of images with no personality (I know that’s what we’re told to create if we want to sell), but Paula’s is FULL of her voice, spirit, and value. If you visit, you will spend at least an hour clicking around her projects, exhibitions, blog, and you MUST visit the zine page. Make a cuppa, sit in a comfy chair, and check it out:
Great artists inspire not only through the physical output of their studio but also through their way of being in the art world: their praxis, their processes, and their relationships. Great artists help us re-focus on values that perhaps we’ve nudged to one side. They inspire through their dedication to their art practice in the face of capitalism and the big gallery mentality. Paula do Prado is one such great artist to me. She reminds me of the beauty of slow, considered textile work that is meaningful BECAUSE it is slow, not despite it. She encourages me to re-visit my thinking around eco-art which I pushed to the corner of my studio because of the whitewashing of eco-art/craft social-media spaces. She definitely makes me want to create a different type of website! One that fully embraces all my projects and communities.
I hope you enjoy Paula do Prado’s work and find it as inspiring as I do. If there’s a little-known artist womxn who’s inspired you and you’re interested in being a guest writer, please let me know. Let’s keep highlighting the work of artist womxn across the globe.
Until next time.
JC
RESOURCES:
Listen to Paula talk about her work here:
Visit Paula’s website HERE
Read Sotheby’s take on ‘Textiles - The Art of Women’s Work’ HERE
Read this book for a western take on women and textile arts:
This is a good article on Artsy about how women of color are using textiles to re-write histories: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-women-artists-color-textiles-rewrite-histories
I really love the "Estrella" piece. Also really like seeing artists not shy away from doing multimedia work using various methods of art. Inspiring! Thank you for sharing her work <3