Artist Statement
BASKETS BY LARISE
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ever since I was a little girl growing up in Seoul Korea, I have made “functional art” from found objects be they directly from Nature or fabricated by people. The first woven object I ever made was a “joori”, an ancient rice winnowing tool used in Korea.
I was adopted by an African American family when I was nine years old and was brought to live on the Monterey Peninsula. And with that…I left so much that was Korean behind me. Except for…my desire “to create”, “to embellish” and “to make”.
The native grasses growing on the Monterey Peninsula reminded me of Korea and I quickly began making joories to play with my new sister and friends. This form of expression allowed me to communicate in this new land with a new language and a new family.
Throughout the years, I have delved in a variety of art forms, including quilting, sewing, jewelry making, sculpturing, painting and basketry. I learned how to make pine needle baskets over 45 years ago and was told it was in the tradition of “Native Americans”.
As I began to create pine needle/raffia baskets, I also began to research the origins of this ancient functional art form and found Indigenous peoples of California did not use pine needles as a medium for their baskets. Instead, the use of pine needles and raffia was more reflective of the Gullah peoples, the descendants of enslaved West Africans.
I currently forge pine needles from a variety of California natives; cultivate sweetgrass originally from the southern states of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and gather feather grasses and palmetto found on the Monterey Peninsula. Some of my baskets are made from pine needles and/or sweet grasses sewn together using various embroidery stitches with a needle and raffia. Others involve the use of an awl and strips of palmetto to stitch the sweetgrass. And so, my style of basketry combines my childhood weaving experiences and my studied methods of the master Gullah weavers.
I am a retired teacher and have enjoyed sharing my baskets and teaching basketry techniques to my students from preschoolers to adults. Sharing, teaching and making baskets nurtures my soul and fulfills my lifelong need and desire to “create, embellish and make”.
~Larise Baker