Featured Artist Teresita Leal

Teresita Leal creates vibrant textile collages that blend traditional quilting techniques with contemporary abstract expression. Discover more by visiting her website.

 

 

I am an artist whose practice is rooted in an ancient craft. The sewing machine is my instrument.

 

 

Many years ago, I was invited to join a group of expatriate women, mostly American, who met once a week to quilt. They quilted with the passion of people who need to preserve their identity and traditions. It was love at first sight.

 

 

At the time, patchwork and quilting were almost unknown in my home country, Argentina, so there was much to do. Over the years, we organized exhibitions and shows to “spread the word.” Meanwhile, I immersed myself in learning—studying techniques through books and online resources, and attending workshops with exceptional teachers at international festivals.

 

 

I have been teaching for over fifteen years, both in my own studio and at festivals in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and the UK. Somewhere along the way, I discovered art quilting. I joined Studio Art Quilt Associates and embraced life as a textile artist. I am deeply drawn to the materiality of fabric, its color, its texture and the techniques used to work with them. Simply looking at and handling textiles inspires me.

 

 

Slow textile work is healing. It leads us to introspection and comforts us in our personal experiences and surroundings. I work almost intuitively. I don’t plan too much beyond a preliminary sketch, which often bears little resemblance to the final work. Then I choose the color palette and the fabrics, and that’s when I enter the creative mode.

 

 

I work with the language of color, value, and texture. Over time, I have adapted my technique to grant me great freedom of expression. What might appear spontaneous is, in fact, the result of deliberate decisions—each fragment of fabric is carefully considered. I draw with color and value, constructing areas, spaces, and shapes. My style is abstract yet referential: a visual distillation of the figurative.

 

 

The deeper one looks, the more abstract and intricate the piece becomes. I invite the viewer to engage in a direct and intuitive experience.

 

 

Materiality is central to my practice. Given the limited availability of cotton fabrics where I live, I have embraced an upcycling approach—hand-dyeing fabrics, repurposing old quilts, and incorporating leftover scraps. These limitations have become creative catalysts, embedding layers of history and meaning into my work.

 

 

Textiles are an integral part of our existence. They accompany us from birth throughout our lives. They connect us to our earliest experiences of warmth, shelter and protection, and to women’s work and history. A connection between a textile art piece and a spectator arises spontaneously through sensations and feelings, without the need for an explicit message.

 

Teresita Leal invites you to follow her on Instagram and both of her Facebook pages.

 

 

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