Home From Dili, Timor-Leste

In early 2015 I was honored to have my work Ginkgo Dust Up selected by the Art In Embassies program of the State Department for an exhibit that was hung in Ambassador Karen Clark Stanton’s personal residence in Dili, Timor-Leste. There were seven artists who participated in this exhibit.

Our foreign ambassadors select art based on the country that they are in and the role the art will create as public diplomacy through cultural exchange. In part, here are Ambassador Stanton’s thoughts on her selections:

I chose an exhibition representative of the textile arts in the United States, because of my own love of the art, and because of the importance of textile arts in Timorese tradition. Timorese textile arts, primarily in the form of traditional tais, predate recorded history. Tais are a style of woven fabric/cloth made solely by women in Timor-Leste.

Just a the tais represent an essential part of the nation’s cultural heritage of Timor-Leste, the works in this exhibition represent textile traditions of quilting and weaving passed down through generations of Americans. I hope that visitors to my home will enjoy these beautiful works as much as I do. I hope visitors will also reflect upon the commonalities in our textile art and the importance placed upon the passing down of traditions through the generations. This point of commonality shows how similar our peoples are in our essential values, such as respect for human rights and democracy, while the differences highlight the richness of our friendship, which though based on shared values, is enhanced by our different backgrounds, traditions, and, at times, perspectives.

This is the catalog of the exhibit. Click on the image for a larger view.

And here is Ginkgo Dust UpDetail

This entire experience has been positive and professional, from the first contact by the Curator in Washington D. C. to the final delivery of my work to my home.