Attention to (intricate) details: Albuquerque-based weaver Emily Trujillo continues family tradition, curates 'Generations of Imagination'

Editor’s note: The Journal continues the once-a-month series “From the Studio” with Assistant Arts Editor Kathaleen Roberts, as she takes an up-close look at an artist.

Emily Trujillo grew up in Chimayó listening to the rhythm of the shuttle gliding across the loom.

As the daughter of the legendary, award-winning weaver Irvin Trujillo and his wife Lisa, she learned to weave at the age of 5.

She hated it.

“It was so hard,” the Albuquerque resident said. “Everyone had such high expectations of me. What if I was really bad at weaving?”

Majoring in ethnology at the University of New Mexico precipitated a turn-around.

“I learned about cultures around the world,” Trujillo said. “One of the most consistent things was that they were dying everywhere.”

She learned to spin and dye when she was 25.

In 2017, she spent a year apprenticing with her famous parents — a weaver and advocate were born.

“Generations of Imagination: What Lies Behind the Vision of Chimayó Weavers” displays the work of this eighth generation Chimayó weaver as well as examples from her famous family. Trujillo is the curator of the exhibit which is on display at the Museum of Colonial Art in Santa Fe through April.

At the heart of the exhibit lies a rich selection of tapestries showcasing their unique designs and the history of this northern New Mexico art form.

Rio Grande is the umbrella term for weavings emerging with the advent of the railroad in the 1880s. The Chimayó style emerged as a distinctive offshoot, characterized by a more dazzling approach to design.

Practicing this style teaches weavers to design quickly on their feet and to work with the geometry. The Trujillo family, now in its eighth generation of weavers, has experienced myriad changes in the weaving environment: from strictly utilitarian blankets, to the arrival of new materials and new tourist markets with the railroad, to a New Deal Era project, and now to the contemporary, intricate designs of today.

Diego de Trujillo, a farmer from Mexico City, moved to New Mexico in the mid-1700s. These early settlers were thought to have woven for personal use and for barter.

The Trujillo family settled in the area that would become Rio Chiquito, the eastern part of Chimayó. Irvin’s grandfather, Isidoro Trujillo (1867-1946) purchased land to supplement his share of the family property to create La Centinela; this is where Irvin and Lisa run Centinela Traditional Arts.

“They are able to trace it back eight generations and maybe even further,” said Jana Gottshalk, museum curator. “They keep the tradition alive.”

Learning to weave “was both easier than I expected and harder than I expected,” Emily Trujillo said. “I had the patience for it, but it was so difficult.”

A potential 2018 internship in neuro-radiology (she double majored in psychology) at the University of California, Davis could have derailed her.

“I decided it was more meaningful to weave,” she said. “It became my life’s work to try and preserve it. Chimayó developed to become as fancy as possible as quickly as possible. So it’s more of a tourist art.”

Some observers denigrated the style because of that popularity.

“My grandpa (Jake Trujillo) wanted to make Chimayó weaving an art,” Trujillo said. “My grandpa said each piece should have its own personality.”

Trujillo’s parents have continued with his legacy.

The family uses wool from an Ohio mill, as well as their own churro sheep. Emily Trujillo’s work combines a respect for tradition with contemporary designs.

Her “Timeless Enchantment” encapsulates her feelings about New Mexico.

“That has traditional saltillo motifs with the diamond in the center and the border on the sides with a New Mexico landscape,” she said. “In the center is an hourglass, because New Mexico is timeless.”

“Hummingbird in the Pink” shows her favorite bird flitting through her favorite color. Her father told her hot pink would never sell.

“It sold immediately,” she said.

Trujillo’s mother Lisa wove “19, 20, 21” as a commentary on the pandemic, complete with hospitals and vaccine lines. The numbers stand for the years COVID swept the world. Her father Irvin’s “Saltillo Shadow” resembles puzzle pieces fitting together.

Trujillo describes the complex geometry of her own “Taste the Tempest” weaving as autobiographical.

“That one made me hate myself” because of its difficulty, she said. “I am a very energetic person. I’m always listening to K-pop while I’m weaving. That’s what I imagine the energy is.”

The static whirling in its center symbolizes a video scene where the band Tempest tosses confetti to the song “Take the Feeling.

“That one I improvised the whole time,” she said.

Trujillo has shown her work at Spanish Market since 2017, winning an honorable mention for “Maniac,” with its dazzling black, white and red geometric forms.

“She is the last in line of the Trujillos who are working at this point,” Gottshalk said. “I’m constantly impressed with the way she takes this on.”

Today, Trujillo teaches children to weave (with mixed success) and works part time in her parents’ Chimayó weaving shop. She also lectures about the history of this traditional art form.