Elena Martinez Bolio: a Yucatecan woman who tells stories through sewing and embroidery

Elena Martinez Bolio is a Yucatecan woman interested in sewing, emboidery and textiles, but also in the daily life and the ancestral cosmovision of Mayan women.

She is a very recognized artist in Yucatan, an initiator of a self-taught technique, drawing with thread and needle, rescuing garments which have fallen into disuse such as the scarf, shawl, and hipiles replacing the pictorial representations to give voices to traditional scenes because for Elena a piece of fabric tells stories of what is happening in the world today. 

Her brand “Desbordada” (overflowing) is a vivid reflection of her personality; she is overflowing with friendship and nice manners, overflowing in kindness to other fellow artisans, but above all, overflowing in talent.

She has participated in many exhibitions, local, national and even international. In her work, she portrays social realities, such as children’s cancer, the abandonment of the elderly, commercial sex workers, mental illnesses and above all, the violence that women live in their communities.

Elena has stated that she considers herself a feminist, although she does not agree with certain ways of protesting, but that their anger and tiredness is understandable.

The pandemic left her with many lessons, such as exhibiting her work in seven exhibitions, her Diploma in Curating and Art Management, her nostalgia for the embrace of friendships, and getting sick with hypertension. Currently, her works made during the pandemic are exhibited in the collective exhibition of women ¨Batallas interiores¨ at the Centro de Artes Visuales (CAV), which will remain open until April 16, 2023.

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