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“I have loved colors and textures my whole life and can spend hours working on
mosaics and collages----anything that I can fit colors and shapes together like
puzzles. While I come from a long line of colcheras, it was my mom who taught
me the colcha stitch and my grandma Sophie Graves who taught her. My mom’s
love for big bold flowers gives me inspiration. Many of my colchas contain old
pieces of my grandma’s fabric and lots of her yarns. I even use one of her old
needles on occasion. This journey has taught me so much about my Carson family
roots and the women artisans who came before me. I love making my own mark in
Taos art history while keeping true to the traditional colcha stitch. I hope to pass
on this gift of colcha to my daughter and generations to come.” Elaine Graves
Elaine Graves has spent most of her life in New Mexico and now shares her time
between Santa Fe and Taos. She comes from the Carson Graves family of
colcheras whose work has been shown in galleries and museums across the
country including the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos. She learned the colcha
stitch from her mom, watercolor artist Louise Graves nearly 20 years ago. She is a
devoted mom to her precious Izzy and spends most of her time with her
family Aaron, Izzy and her animals Max, Rockefeller and Mittens. Her colchas have
been shown at the Martinez Hacienda and are currently on display at Wilder
Nightingale Fine Art in Taos.
