Adriana Torres is a famous embroidery artist from Argentina known for her delicate yet gorgeous embroidery using a wide variety of stitches.
This February, she will be holding a botanical alphabet embroidery workshop at WALNUT Kyoto!
We took this opportunity to talk to her in detail about her work and career.
── We heard that you were originally a graphic designer. Could you please tell us why and how you chose textile arts such as embroidery and crochet as a means of expression in graphic design?
Since I was eight years old I wanted to be an architect. I was always fascinated by architecture and I still am. But when I was finishing my degree I realized that it is not what I wanted for my life or my job and I started studying graphic design. While I was in college I started studying illustration as another tool for my career and that was when embroidery came into my life. That was in 2008. I began to use embroidery as another technique besides watercolor and gouache.
It is very easy for me to work with different media such as threads, paints, ceramics. I think I learned this skill as an architecture student. It gave me training in the design field and the ability to project in different materials.
── After that, how did embroidery become your job?
When I started embroidery as a student, I never thought that embroidery would become my main job. It never even occurred to me to start teaching classes. People started inviting me from different parts of the world. I traveled a lot, representing Argentina at international fairs in London and Paris with my brand Miga de Pan. Until quarantine, I was dedicated to producing knitted dolls, blankets, rugs, and decorative objects for children. After quarantine, I focused directly on embroidery and teaching embroidery classes.
But it was never a conscious decision. Over time, I discovered that I like teaching classes as much as embroidery. And on top of that, traveling around the world is another of my passions. Getting to know new cultures and making new connections, travel enriches my embroidery. And also, teaching connects me with very interesting people who share my same tastes and way of seeing life. Teaching, I learn more and more.
When I return to Buenos Aires, I feel overwhelmed with inspiration. When I was little, I dreamed of having a job that would allow me to travel the world. I feel very lucky to have made my childhood dream come true.
── What are the characteristics of your work?
I think my work is delicate because I like to work with small stitches and desaturated colors. Although lately I have been working with quite intense colors. I am quite a perfectionist when it comes to techniques, although when I am embroidering I try to flow as much as I can and I work hard to stop being so perfectionist. I like fresh and spontaneous embroidery without losing sight of the technique. As for three-dimensionality and the great variety of textures, it has to do with my constant search and my experimentation. I get bored always working with the same stitch, but what drives me most to this search is that I am fascinated by textures and contrasts. If there is a word that defines my work, that word is contrast. Contrast in textures, in geometric and organic shapes, contrast in colors with natural color palettes and fluorescent colors, to mention just a few. The style emerged in the making, when I look back and see all my work I realize that there is an aesthetic that unites them, but that was never my intention. They say that my style is recognizable. I don't know exactly why but I imagine that perhaps it has to do with the fact that I was always authentic. My inspiration comes from my own experience. From my experiences, what I see and hear and my inner world.
── Specifically, what experiences or motifs do you draw inspiration from?
The inspiration for my work comes mainly from nature. Plants, flowers and animals are my main source of inspiration. But anything can trigger my imagination. For example, last year I was in Denmark and I saw a bus with a very strange color combination for me, it was painted in light blue beige and fluorescent yellow. As soon as I could, I went to buy thread in those colors and embroidered a sweater chair in that combination. I think that if I hadn't seen it on that bus I would never have combined those colors.
── "Chair with a sweater" is one of your icons. It's a series we knitters can't get enough of and love! How did it come about?
The iconic sweater chair came about in one of the illustration classes. My love for chairs comes from when I was an architecture student. I was a fan of Bauhaus and all the works that emerged from that school. Some of my favorite artists were Gerrit Rietveld and Marcel Breuer. Their chair designs fascinated me. In an exercise during one of the illustration classes I had to combine everyday objects and I combine the chair with a sweater. I don't know why but for many years I continued painting, drawing and embroidering this design and to this day I never get tired of embroidering or painting it. It's as if they were already part of me. During quarantine the design of the sweater chair became a character and I named it ¡Gatagoto!. I was listening to a song by Haruomi Hosono on Spotify, the song is called Choo choo Gatagoto. I can't explain why but I felt that it was the name of the character.
In fact, I will be having my first solo show in Japan in February. This will be held at Tegamisha art gallery. The opening will be on February 19th until March 1st. And probable title will be Gatagoto. I never dreamed that I would be able to hold an exhibition in Japan, so I am very honored.
For details of the exhibition, please see here, https://tegamisha.com/news/news-tag-2502/
── By the way, how do you use your embroidery works in your daily life? Are there any methods you would recommend, such as hanging it on the wall or making it into a handkerchief?
I sell it as a piece of work to hang on a wall. I would love to tackle my clothes, but until now I don't have much time. I remember when we were children with my brothers and our mother would embroider the fronts of our pants. It seemed like something wonderful to me, something beautiful and unique that is priceless. When I start traveling less and have more time for myself, I will embroider my own clothes.
──Any other new challenges you'd like to take on?
Right now I am trying a new level in my embroidery, although we have not shown any of it yet. A couple of years ago I was studying jewelry and I had to stop for the moment because of my travels, but I will surely take it up again at some point. I will probably always try new things because everything feeds back into my textile work. It is a back and forth of inspiration.
── Do you have any message for people who are just starting to embroider or who are participating in workshops!
I always like to tell my students or people who are starting out with embroidery that they have to be patient, that they have to practice the technique but at the same time not try to be so perfectionist. The wonderful thing about hand embroidery is that it does not have to be perfect. For example, if I see an embroidery that is too well done and I cannot tell if it was done by a machine or by a human, it does not excite me. I love to see the “mistakes” that in reality for me are not mistakes but are the handprint of the person who did the work. I believe that practice is very important to achieve a rhythm and that rhythm can be seen when one sees the finished embroidery. I like to see that rhythm and not the perfection of the technique. And when the person who made the embroidery enjoyed it, that can be read in the final rhythm of the stitches. And that makes embroidery authentic. And it is through authenticity that emotions are transmitted.
