A Slow Notebook (2023/2024)

Handmade cotton apron, embroidered with representations of plants met on walks. Evergrowing project.

I live the memory of how my grandmother always wore an apron over her dress, in which she would keep all her most important things: her handkerchief, her rosary, scissors, house keys, a pencil, a pacifier for the children, some loose grains of sea salt (“You never know when you’ll feel hungry in the fields; if the tomatoes are ripe, you must carry some salt with you…”, she justified). I made this apron in Veléz-Blanco, a slow notebook where I can bring encounters “in my pocket” without disturbing them. By taking a closer (slower) look at these beings to embroider them, I get to say hello and be present for them. From these textile drawings, I further research on these plants, looking at their geography, name etymology, and underlying stories and tales. My apron is now accompanying me in my walks, being reused and revisited in different contexts and in the company of different more-than-humans.

Initiated at Joya: Arte y Ecología AiR, Veléz-Blanco (ES).

Photographs by Kevin Belló.