MARIADELE PRIEST | "MOVING THROUGH THE HOUSE"

Needlework/Textile 

Cotton Thread on Cloth, Stretched on Wood Frame

12" x 15"

Mariadele Medellin Priest is a Mexican American, Brooklyn based fiber artist who creates abstract color studies. She was introduced to needlework as a girl by women in her family. Her girlhood was spent in South Texas and Mexico. Her travels in Mexico introduced her to the textile making techniques of weaving and embroidery.  Those textile techniques coupled with her love of architecture and nature,  create the foundation for her artistic practice.

Needlework and textiles especially resonate with her because they have long been the province of women. Anonymous women used needlework to mend and care for family, to earn a living when few other options were available, or for others as a form of self expression at a time when women lacked agency.  The textiles of Mexico, Morocco and Japan inspire and influence her work. 

She works with natural materials, cotton thread, cloth and wood and explores how light interacts with the sheen of colored thread and the wood grain. She is exploring the sensation of space in the built and natural environment through abstract color studies. The work employs two techniques: stitched work that recalls the hand knotting of traditional rug making and geometric grids inspired by the implied grid of weaving. 

Mariadele pursued a career in community development  and affordable housing working in the government, and the nonprofit and corporate sectors. Throughout, she made and collected textiles. Since retiring she has focused on her fiber arts practice.