Roberta Lagomarsini

My quilts are a shared visual diary of the beauty and complexity of the Great Basin. The Basin is a land centered in Nevada and spiraling out to the surrounding states. I organize my diary into four chapters. First is Baskets, honoring Native Americans. Following is Land, its terrain, peoples, and stories. Third is Water, an extremely important resource in this harsh place. And finally, Prayer, as this is a very spiritual place. These quilts are not exact depictions. They rise from my memory, inviting others to wander the Basin’s light, its distances, its silences. They may be about something overlooked or forgotten, such as “Manzanar: Ode to Ryoto Kato”. They may emphasize the sense of pace through abstraction as in “Mono Lake Negative” or “Sierra Nevada Mountains”. I make the Great Basin come alive, not just as a location but as something shared and reimagined.