The Life of a Guatemalan Quilt Artist
A showcase of Priscilla’s Guatemalan cultural context and artistic work.
Enjoy the rich visual of Guatemalan textiles and Mayan people. This inspirational slide lecture will appeal to quilters and non-quilters alike. Priscilla’s Guatemalan background is a region known for its rich textile culture of weaving and embellishment along with vibrant use of colour however it has no quilting tradition.
Priscilla tells her amazing story as a quilt maker, her inspirations and her journey to become a renowned art quilter with a unique place due to her use of her traditional textiles.
With humour, entertaining stories and lots of insight, we’re sure you’ll enjoy this lecture.
About Priscilla
Priscilla Bianchi, textile artist, designer, international teacher and author, represents a unique personality in today’s contemporary fibre arts world. She was born and raised in Guatemala, Central America. While being a seamstress and home sewer for over 40 years, she experimented with various artistic mediums. In 1997, she realised that art quilting brought together everything she loved.
Her one-of-a-kind art quilts unite cultures, as she combines the richness and ethnic beauty of her native Mayan Guatemalan hand-woven textiles, colours, patterns and symbolism, with American quilt-making techniques; creating pieces that are fresh, vibrant, and innovative.
Priscilla’s work has been widely published and exhibited internationally and has been acquired by the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) in New York City, NY; the Hyatt Centric Hotel, Hotel Museo Casa Santo Domingo, and the Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Textiles in Guatemala City; and by many private collectors around the world.
An experienced teacher, she taught school children for 13 years in Guatemala. Later, due to her degree in Industrial Psychology, she became a Human Resources Consultant and spent 14 years training managers and employees from many different companies in Central America and the Caribbean. She specialised in topics such as Communication, Motivation, Leadership, Human Relations, among others.
Soon after discovering the art of quilting, she retired from it all, to dedicate herself full-time to quilt making. She has travelled all over the world and the US to exhibit, teach and lecture about her art, career, and experiences. She’s sure to inspire and motivate quilters, non-quilters, and artists alike with her unique origins, passion, and enthusiasm for her work. Priscilla has recently taught at the Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, California and the Madeline Island School of the Arts, La Pointe, Wisconsin.
