About — Ileana Soto

Artist Statement

Textiles have connected me with people throughout my life and given me a way to explore my experiences of the world.

My art reflects a commitment to personal deepening, expression, and exploration. Step by step, complexity emerges from adding layers of dye, paint, cloth, and surprising elements, onto the background cloth.

I use that layering to explore the relationships of culture, community, climate justice and human rights. These themes are personal for me, specific to current events, and universal over time. Art allows me to “find a way, make a way” (Congressman John R. Lewis) to have my messages be seen and heard. I encourage all of us to make a way to be seen and be heard.

Ileana's C.V.

“Life makes shapes. These shapes are part of an organizing process that embodies emotions, thoughts, and experiences into a structure. This structure, in turn, orders the events of existence.”

— Stanley Keleman, Emotional Anatomy

My maternal grandmother was the local stitch expert in her neighborhood, with immigrant women flocking to her door with questions. She taught me embroidery at a young age. I created unique garments from the age of 12 when my mother taught me to sew. I decorated apartments and homes. I explored various techniques through art classes for adults: weaving, tie dye, batik painting, twined sculptures, fiber sculptures, quilting, art quilts.

My work may be a response to current events, with an intention to alert you to our changing climate and its effect on us and our environment. The meaning of a piece might emerge from my struggle (exploration?) and eventual solution to an artistic problem which reflects my internal state. There may be a deeper part of me that wants to come to the surface. There are also people and experiences that inspire optimism in me: cultures of the world, my own cultures, my artistic mentors, political activists, personal friends.

In my career as a family therapist, I helped family members ease their pain by going deeper, a process which enabled them to develop healthier connections and a better understanding of one another. My engagement in therapeutic work sharpened my ability to recognize harm and its effect on others. I learned how to teach families to use art to express themselves and take steps to prevent further damage. In retirement, I intentionally apply dye and paint onto silk, cotton or linen to express myself.

All of this, I want to share with you.