"Orocovis: Remembrance of the First Mountain" by Maya Joy Griffin
Miniature beaded tapestryDimensions: 2.5" x 3.5" x .75"
I was sitting in the heart of Puerto Rico, overlooking the mountains of Orocovis when I got the idea for my first miniature beaded tapestry. I started beading jewelry as a young child but took a long reprieve until just this year. A friend of mine gifted me a beautiful collection of glass beads from her late mother and I was instinctively drawn towards attempting to bead my first tapestry. Beading is something that is very calming and meditative to me, I also love creating small, detailed things so I had been playing with the idea of an abstract figurative landscape earlier this year. As I sat on the terrace in the mountains, it had just rained that morning and the far off sky was white with fog as it receded down the mountains and through a row of blooming, spring trees. It was a moment of stillness that matched the same feeling I have when I bead. Only recently, while I was titling my piece, did I find out that 'Orocovis' means 'remembrance of the first mountain' in the native Taino language of Puerto Rico. I hope my small landscape brings you into that moment of stillness in the mountains.