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Woman in market place, Tianquistenco,
Estado de México
She is wearing in typical style, a cotton jaspe
(ikat) rebozo from Tenancingo, Estado de México
Detail of a cotton jaspe (ikat) rebozo
from Tenancingo, Estado de México
Stitch and tie resist skirt
Vizarrón, Querétaro
Collection of Dr. Irmgard W. Johnson
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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
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Virginia Davis works with ikat weaving and other resist techniques, both as an internationally
exhibited studio artist (see artist page, also) and from a research point of view. Her awards include
a Fulbright to India and several individual Visual Artist grants from the NEA and the New York
State Council for the Arts. While in India, she researched block printing and weft ikat techniques.
She has an MA in Sociology from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and as a graduate student
there, she was an assistant of Oscar Lewis on an anthropological field trip to Mexico. In 1995, as a
recipient of a joint National Endowment for the Arts and Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes
award, she, working with Dr. Irmgard W. Johnson, researched Mexican stitch-and-tie resist skirts.
The Mexican jaspe (ikat) rebozo is also a major research subject. The Video documentation of the
last jaspe weaver in Oaxaca, Don Fidel Diaz Valencia, was an important project. Other research
consists of work with Dr. Patricial Anawalt, Center for Regional Dress, Fowler Museum, UCLA. Dr.
Anawalt has analyzed the type and significance of indigenous costume of Mexico as depicted in
codices. Virginia has had the privilege of creating plausible reconstructions of resist textiles
pictured (for one example see: Anawalt, Patricia Rieff Anawalt, "Aztec Knotted and Netted Capes,
Colonial Interpretations vs. Indigenous Primary Data". Ancient Mesoamerica, 7 (1996), 187-206)
Because of her interest in pigments, dyes and processes of application, Davis has written on
William Morris' technique of indigo discharge printing.
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Selected Published Articles and Research
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1997
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"Frederic Edwin Church's Acquisitions of Mexican Textiles" Decorative Arts, Vol. IV, 97-109
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1995
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"Morris and Indigo Discharge Printing" The Journal of the William Morris Society, Vol. XI No. 3
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1992
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"Shifted Patterning for Ikat" Weaver's, #18, 3rd Quarter, pp.52-54
"Fidel Diaz Valencia: Master Weaver"---video tape (30 minutes)
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1991
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"Resist Dyeing in Mexico: Comments on Its History, Significance and Prevalence" in Textile
Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes, M. B. Schevill, J.C. Berlo, E. B. Dyer, eds., Garland
Publishing, New York & London
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1990
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Review of "Symmetries of Culture" by D.K. Washburn & D.W. Crowe, Surface Design Jrnl, Spring.
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RELEVANCE TO THE FIBER FIELD
I believe that my research informs and enriches my teaching and lecturing. I hope it adds
to the store of information that relates textiles to their societal context. The research on the
Mexican stitch and tie textiles documents a tradition that has vanished, therefore it is very
necessary to preserve the information.
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