My creative partnership with blue unfolded with an alternative photographic process called cyanotype. I still recall the instant connection I felt as the water cascaded over the fiber washing away the emulsion to magically reveal a striking blue print. A year and a myriad of photograms later, an inquiry about my knowledge of a mysterious plant named indigo catapulted my research into a blue abyss and the art of textile dyeing.
In this academic pursuit, I learned of the hue’s spiritual significance, indigo’s fraught history, and the blue-saturated textile traditions that are not only centuries-old but transnational. Much like me, this color is complicated, cerebral, and strange, and it continues to entertain my seemingly ceaseless curiosities. Today, I’ve come to understand my work with the color as reclamation, an act of resistance, and a continuum of my ancestry.
I am unsure how long I will work with blue, but it appears to have taken up residence in my studio, on my paper and materials with no plans to vacate. So I will heed and play and grow until my desire to enmesh with this mesmerizing color resides, and I am no longer bewitched by its allure and magnetism.
