My work reflects 18 years of life in Kyoto as well as impressions from winter studios in Spain, Costa Rica and Indonesia. Working with applied dyes, and hot wax on silk is a meditative process for me; centering and ecstatic; both planned and spontaneous. I work with color and pattern, layering and mark making with resist-dye techniques, using the materials of acid dye, silk fabric and ganryo pigment.

In the past images for my work have come from textile research, ancient craft traditions and a delight in process. Other subject matter came from time spent in the Alhambra in Granada, sketching in the Mosque of Cordoba as well as painting on the edge of rice fields in Indonesia.

More recently, an interest in the spiritual qualities of cloth, transformation and a global view led me to work on a series of seven kesa (Buddhist monastic robes) that I prepared for the millennium to be on view at PEM from December of 2006 through June 2007. As cloths of healing and unity, one for each continent, they were made to be on site around the world on January 1, 2000. My latest work is a series of scrolls on contemplative and spiritual sources and a collaborative project with Luanne Rime of St. Louis exploring visual meditations in layered rozome and digital printed images on silk.

My work is a meditation and a centering in this diverse world.

— Betsy Sterling Benjamin
September 2006