I sat down to speak with Lisa Trujillo of Centinela Traditional Arts. As she walked me through her creative space and talked about her process, she explained that weaving was not handed down to her from her immediate family. Instead, Lisa married into a fiber arts heritage that goes back seven generations. She learned the craft from her husband, Irvin Trujillo, and his father, Jacobo. She began weaving in the early 1980s and has since distinguished herself as a master weaver in her own right.
Lisa acknowledges both the gift and the privilege of coming into such a rich legacy, as well as the heavy responsibility that accompanies it. Irvin’s family heritage, and everything it stands for, means the world to her. “He has extended family that are this place,” she says. The fact that she is the one who gets to live here—while others have had to leave just to earn a living—weighs on her. “I am here, doing this thing,” she reflects, “and it feels sacred in a different way than the creative process itself. All these people put so much work into this land. They stayed here. They suffered here. There’s a responsibility to those people—both the people that have passed and the people that are still around—and I do take that seriously.”
Her life in Chimayó is vastly different from anything she knew before. Having grown up in Los Angeles, she had to completely learn the village culture. She has made lifestyle choices that she hopes are okay: her Spanish isn’t fluent, she isn’t out there farming, and she doesn’t prune the apple trees that have stood here for generations.
Yet, she has found her own deep connection to the craft. One of her great creative pleasures is using up leftover yarn—just a skein of this and a ball of that. She takes all the bits and pieces that others in the shop leave behind, digging into the unused barrels where the ends of old batches define her palette. Confronted with a vast array of colors but only a little of each, she thrives on figuring out how to use them cohesively, artfully, and meaningfully. “I love that,” she says. “It’s fun to work with those kinds of limitations.” In fact, one of her newest pieces, titled When the Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts, was born from exactly this kind of mishmash palette.
During my visit, Lisa reverently showed me Jacobo’s loom and his shuttle—a tool she still uses to this day.
She explained how they grow their yarn using heritage sheep breeds like the Navajo-Churro, harvesting the wool, carding it, and spinning it on her Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel.
She also described how Irvin cooks down seasonal, local plants and historic materials—like chamisa, cochineal, indigo, black walnut, and madder root—to extract their traditional colors.
Once dyed, they take the skeins to the acequia, the irrigation ditch behind their home, to rinse out the excess dye until the water runs clear. This rinsing happens exclusively during the months when the ditch is actively flowing. Afterward, the yarn is washed with soap and laid out to dry in the sun. It is a beautiful continuation of historic New Mexico agricultural traditions, a profound honoring of Irvin’s ancestors, and a true privilege to witness.
Find more about Lisa, her work, and Centinela Traditional Arts at chimayoweavers.com
Love to you all,
Jeane
Very nice…passing this along to a friend up here who is weaving. Their work is seductive.
L.
Thanks Linda. Yes, to be in their presence and to be with their work is a real privilege. They are remarkable people doing remarkable work. There will be a post about Irvin tomorrow.
Jeane,
I am beyond delighted to read your wonderful profile of my friend Lisa.
You have captured her generous and creative spirit so well.
And the great photos have provided my first opportunity to visit her studio. Thank you!!
Hi Gina–
Thank you for letting me know you feel I’ve caught something of Lisa’s spirit. She and Irvin are such magnificent people I so wanted to do them justice. Also glad the photos allow you to feel you’ve visited their studio/gallery. That’s everything I was trying to do. There will be a post about Irvin tomorrow so come visit again.
Lisa’s weaving is amazing…I love seeing the large colorful pieces on the wall all together…they just vibrate with energetic color and beauty:) She seems to build into them the combined heritage and her soul at the same time:)
Thank you Jeane:)
XOXOX
Grace
Yes, I think that’s exactly right. I love how much she respects the heritage of Irvin’s family but also understands the importance of her own legacy. That depth of understanding can’t help but open the soul. One day you’ll see her work in person. Ivin’s story will post tomorrow.
I love that you introduce us to different artists and their works! Lisa’s work is so beautiful with the bright colors and different patterns that just become as she goes along! They are just wonderful and I look forward to seeing the blog on Irving! What a great heritage to have passed down and kept alive through their work!
Sorry for the mispelling of Irvin’s name I put down what I was saying in my head what it sounded like not how to spell it. Irvin’gs instead of Irvin’s. Thats what I get for typing too fast! Silly me! =/
Irvin is an unusual name and not what we expect so “Irving” is natural to fall back on. Lisa calls him “Irv” which I love. Yes, her work is stunning. Not many people could take up weaving as she did and come to the level she’s attained. Even though it wasn’t “in her blood”, clearly it was in her spirit. She and Irvin were meant to find each other for so many reasons, not the least of which was to introduce her to her own weaving “heritage” buried somewhere deep in her old knowing.
Whar wonderful articles about Lisa and Irvin, I had the opportunity to meet them both last fall, and became the proud owner of a Chimayo vest. Lisa and I were facebook “friends” so I was eager to meet her, luckily, she was busy weaving and I had the chance to both visit and watch her at work. The work they both do is so amazing, so beautiful,colorful and creative. Such talent,such skill,and such interesting, enjoyabe people to meet!
Thank you, Dorothy. Yes, one of the most remarkable things about them, I think, is how completely humble they each are. When I first reached Lisa to ask her about doing the pieces she said something to the effect of, “Do you think we’re interesting?” Duh…
I only know Lisa through our internet group, and like others here I thank you for the profile and for letting us into her studio which to this poiint I was only able to imagine. I have seen photos of her work, but now I see the process, and it is amazing. What patience it must take to create one of these delightful and useable pieces of art.
Beth W
It is amazing to watch their process, I agree. For all the photos, the videos and the words, I continue to feel there is still so much I wasn’t able to capture. There is something deeply soulful about both Lisa and Irvin–very hard to pin down. Perhaps it’s what remains for you to experience one day in person. Any time you can make is well worth it, I promise.