I'll knit you one

If asked to sum up Peru in three words and phrases I bet most people

would say something like - Incas, llamas and woolly hats with earflaps.

But if you said Ana, Teresa, Barboza I'd be most impressed.

I don't know whether Ana Teresa ever uttered the words "I'll knit you

one."; they probably don't translate quite like that from her native

Peruvian, but she should have because that's what her art is mostly about.

Ana Teresa knits landscapes.

Although that's not strictly true because knitting is only a part of it.

She weaves dreams, mimics the flow of water and grasses, makes the sky

move, brings the hills alive and all with just yarn, wool and needles.

She also does some rather dark, slightly disturbing stuff but I promise

I won't go there in this episode.

Ana Teresa was born in 1980 in Lima where she lives and works today

having studied painting in the Faculty of Art at the Pontifical Catholic

University.  Her work occupies the space between sculpture and tapestry

and her images break effortlessly free from their constraining embroidery

hoops to tumble naturally down the walls on which they are displayed.

Starting to get a bit spooky.

Her pieces also cross the invisible boundaries into textile are where she

mixes threads with graphite on cloth with consumate ease.  When she

first left university she dabbled in clothes design which is where she learned

about fabrics and their construction and it is this knowledge that she

incorporates into her masterpieces today.

Embroidered photograph

She sees her creations as a fusion of textile art and feminine art through the

mixture of vegetable fibres and synthetic threads with drawings and even

photographs.  A truly unique approach and I'm waiting patiently to see her

marvels up close should she ever decide to exhibit in my neck of the

woods - knitted ones, of course!