Carmen Mardonez
The sun will rise again
2020
Hand embroidery - top sheet and threads
35 x 36 inches
Nominated by Nicole Larrondo
I’m submitting one of the recent pieces of my best friend, Carmen Mardonez because she creates beautiful and insightful images by using threads and discarded materials such as bedsheets, pillowcases, and lemon mesh. Carmen’s life had changed quite much in the last three years. She became a mom, and a couple of weeks later had to resign to her job and moved to the US.
Embroidery has been an essential part of this journey of self-rediscovery. But as we can see, her stitches don’t fit in the traditional image of the quiet mom embroidering flowers while her kid is asleep. Conversely, her canvases are as big as tapestries, and her stitches and colors are not planned. Her work reveals a discharge of energy, a silent outcry from her room.
Coming from a very conservative Catholic family, Carmen’s stitches can be interpreted as a rebellion against their feminine role of what a lovely mother and wife should behave. A role that was imposed on her since she was little, but now she has the chance to question through her artwork. Yet, her materials and the images she embroiders are part of this intimate and familiar world. What she looks through the window every day -this new, but very common sky- is what inspires her to keep creating new colors, shapes, and sensations.