"My fascination for textiles started out when my mother opened up an old chest in our
basement and started pulling out intricate textiles that my grandmothers and aunts had
created and passed down. I began to study these pieces and look for ways to make them
a part of my art practice."

-Eden Quispe

Do you have any memories from five years that you lived in Peru that influence your pieces?

Eden Quispe: When I lived in Peru (and when I visit my husbands Peruvian family in the summer) we are often living within a Peruvian household. It's a tight space and for a while we had all the siblings in the family along with their father and the grandchildren all sharing space. 

The work Create, Recreate, is based on the three fates but also on being a part of an intergenerational household while living in Peru. My sister in law, my third-culture daughter, and myself are all depicted in the work. 

All three of us are very different from the other but also have common goals. That is one part of what I am trying to depict in that work. 

You have exhibited in many places including but not limited to Brooklyn and Cincinnati, do you have a favorite exhibition you have had?

EQ: My current museum exhibition is my favorite because it is at my hometown art museum in Wichita for most of the year (The Wichita Art Museum). It is exciting to have my work in a space that also is a home to the works of Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper, and Mary Cassatt among others.

Specifically I created a textile piece just for this exhibit that reflects the multicultural experience of growing up in Wichita.

If you are in the area before mid August check it out before it comes down! 

I understand your works are repurposed, where do you source your materials?

EQ: All my materials are second hand. I have never been to a fabric store to buy fabric for my pieces. I try to use materials that my subject matter would relate to.

My favorite materials are doilies, cross-stitch patterns, weavings and embroideries with history.  Many of my materials were created by women who worked around the home throughout the 20th century. Some of these pieces reflect the Peruvian heratige of my husband's family, a culture which is not my own but which I have lived in for years.

I want the message of my work to be universal and honest about my multicultural life in Kansas and abroad. 

Eden Quispe, Create Recreate, 2025, Stitched and painted found textiles with hot glue embellishments,  21.3 x 15.2 IN

Describe your art process in five words.

remember,  repurpose,  paint,  stitch, and feedback

Your pieces are inspired by the children and young adults around and reflect on textiles, domesticity and childrearing; have you had any reactions to your works that imprinted on you?

EQ: A lot of my pieces have narratives that my own children and art students enjoy. I take a lot from classic children's books and mythologies that they would know. And then weave in personal parallels alongside the meanings.

In my work, Hook and Eye my students easily guessed I was creating a play on the Echo and Narcissus story from mythology.

They get excited when they see meaning and messages hidden in the work that they can understand.

I love that I can create work that relates to young and old alike. 

Of all of the themes you touch on in your works including childrearing, daydreams, pregnancy, etc. which one do you enjoy the most in making?

EQ: I enjoy the theme of what it means to look at the world from the perspective of being a woman. Sometimes this has to do with motherhood and sometimes it does not.

In my larger pieces especially I occasionally get asked if my work is created using assistants. I respond that in a way, yes, I do work collaboratively in that I collage a lot of the handiwork of women before me. My work is made up of women's work, all combined to create an image reflecting all of our voices. 

Eden Quispe, Self-Portrait, the Feeding , 2025, Stitched and painted textiles, 17 x 12.5 IN

How do your works interact with works by Gabrielle Torres?

EQ: I am glad to be sharing wall space with Gabrielle's work as she also has work highlighting the meaning to be mined out of texile remnants.

We both use painting in our work, switching back and forth between heavier use of textiles and heavier use of paint.

I enjoy the surprises I see in her work. By choosing to weave objects which many weavers would discard, like the top of the curtain with the metal rims still intact.

It is fun to see the different direction she took to express a similar message. 

Has there ever been a piece you made that you weren't happy or satisfied with?

EQ: The nice thing about working with collage is you really never have to throw anything away. I can always go back to a piece I don't like, cut it up, and include it in a new work. I have done this and done this very recently.

So while yes, I have made work I wasn't satisfied with, I have learned I can always find a way to make it work somehow in the future work I create. 

What does a normal day in the studio or while you are creating a piece look like?

EQ: As a mother I am often stopping and starting at different times in the day. I really just never stop thinking about art all day. I set little goals for myself and always have tons of moving pieces all over my house. On my nightstand, I have parts of my work that doesn't require being close to my fabric and sewing machine. I work on that when I want to wind down to sleep.

Upstairs in my studio, on a good day, I begin working in the morning and keep sewing and collaging till mealtimes. I collage on my work, then go to my quilting machine to fix it all down to the work, then collage some more, then back to the quilting machine I go. 

What makes your artistic process different from others?

EQ: I believe my process is a whole lot more chaotic than that of most artists. I always bring my work everywhere I go. Whether to my art teaching gig or on a road trip or while traveling I am always looking for bits of time where I can work on painting a new figure or pinning fabric scraps to bits of my work.

I have most definitely stained hotel bedsheets with archival paint (shhh don't tell anyone).

By creating work on the go I get feedback from a wide range of people from different cultures and walks of life.

But when at home, I don't really close my door either. There are always kids wandering in to ask me questions or chat and I welcome their presence. The people around me are the inspiration for my portraiture so I work around my schedule with them rather than requiring them to stay out of my process. 

"My grandfather's ties, my daughter's dresses, and inherited fabric from my own family as well as fabric from my husband's Peruvian culture are painted and sewn upon and cut to become walls, tables, and chairs. I include handmade or embroidered scrap
textiles that I find in second hand stores because they represent hours of labor yet are so easily discarded and undervalued."

- Eden Quispe