Eppie Archuleta, Northern Yeis, 1997. 100% wool, natural and chemical dyes. 34x39 inches.

Born in 1922 in Santa Cruz, New Mexico.

Eppie Archuleta comes from a family of over sixty weavers spanning five generations. Her mother, Agueda Martinez (also represented in this exhibit), taught her how to use a treadle loom. She continued to weave while working on her farm with her husband and family.

Eventually Archuleta created a design on her weaving that broke from her use of traditional Spanish, Navajo, and Chimayo designs. One textile depicted Cesar Chavez, the farm labor leader; this was the beginning of her narrative use of textiles. Many of her figurative textiles or "woven paintings" such as Northern Yeis are created "freehand", without a pre-drawn pattern.

Archuleta has continued to work with political images. In 1993, she created a tapestry dedicated to the women who served in the Vietnam War, which hangs at the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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