- Hello, I'm Beth MacMillan and welcome to "Arteffects".

At the Depot Gallery in Sparks, local artist Ana Perez-McKay's solo exhibition features a paralleled quilt and paper series titled "Uncharted.'

The duplicated patchwork examines how imitation can often distort history and truth.

Take a look.

(gentle rhythmic music) - I'm Ana Perez-McKay.

We're at the Depot Gallery, which is managed by Sierra Arts and my show is called "Uncharted", and it's a series of 18 pieces done with printmaking and paint, quilting and crochet reflecting on truth and source and history with the ways that things can get misconstrued and flattened and oversimplified.

(gentle upbeat music) The crochet pieces that are seen in the work are made out of fibers that are mostly embroidery floss that I found in my grandparents' house.

I spent a year in Ireland and my family is from there, and I was able to find some materials that had belonged to women in my family.

And then, the patchwork is done with different sources.

Some of them were from my own collection and other projects in the past, from thrift stores, and some of them were really old stock from Mill End Fabrics here in Reno.

The wood that I used was willow from the Truckee River.

My girlfriend actually went and foraged a bunch of these willow sticks for me.

I really like displaying these pieces kind of as tapestries on the wall.

And the best way to do that is with some kind of dowel.

Getting local sticks from near the river is so much better than buying a dowel that's gone through a factory and been resold back to me.

It's kind of a really simple reason for using that wood, but also I think it really ties in with the rest of the show as well.

(gentle upbeat music) I was thinking a lot about the literal truth and meaning in objects and in cultures and experiences that can be transformed when they're duplicated and regurgitated and changed, and how culture treats people and society is able to support and degrade different groups.

(car whooshing) And Sierra Arts put out a call for artists.

So, I put together a proposal that kind of brought what I had been working on and thinking about together.

They encouraged artists to propose a couple of community engagement events.

What I came up with was a mending circle that would take place in the gallery, which is be open to the public, encouraging people to come and have a space that's calm and peaceful to kind of all work on mending stuff together, to share skills.

(gentle upbeat music) Also, when I was in Ireland, I went to a couple of knitting circles.

Everyone was working on their own little project.

I hadn't met anyone before, but it was just such a lovely warm environment.

I really feel like connecting over craft is a really lovely way to connect people and to celebrate handy crafts and things that we love to do.

And then, I also hosted a workshop at like a press and pressure printing, which is the technique that I used in this show.

It's a technique that I chose because it let me print directly from these lace objects that I had been making without putting ink or shellac, or anything on the lace itself.

So, this process happens when you put down a layer of ink just flat on a flat surface, then put your paper on top of that, and then the lace on top of that, and run the whole thing through a press so that the lace presses into the paper, presses into the ink, and that picks up an impression of the lace on the paper.

- Oh my god.

- Wow.

Yeah.

- When my grandma did a lot of knitting and she showed me a little bit how to do that when I was younger, I fell in love with crochet a little more.

And it was just a hobby that I picked up and really, really did a lot of when I was in, like, elementary school.

With sewing, I also learned to do that when I was pretty young from, like, my mom and my aunt.

I was a very quiet and reserved kid and I liked my quiet hobbies.

And then, I didn't do it so much for quite a few years.

And then, I really kind of rediscovered my love for it more recently.

Being able to make my own designs and pull together these materials that kind of have sentimental value and have this history that I'm really thinking about.

(gentle upbeat music) I started doing this work when I was in Ireland, did the dice piece there when I was kind of reminiscing about Reno and wanting to make something kind of playful.

And then, I was designing more floral based charts when I came back to Reno, reminiscing on the natural beauty that I saw in Ireland.

And I had a lot of time to work on those charts and to do some stitching when I was volunteering at the Warming Center here in Reno.

Women and people with kids can come in and just sleep in a safe, warm place for the night just to get them off the streets for a little bit of time.

(somber music) Being an artist in Reno is really interesting and has inspired me a lot of reflection on my role as an artist and as someone who gets to be in a gallery, especially in contrast with a lot of the living conditions that a lot of my neighbors are being subjected to at this time, especially with homelessness and with various threats to people's way of life.

As people who love art, it would make more sense and be more of a true approach to wanting to see more art in the world, to do what we can to make life easier for people in our community so that as many people as possible are able to make art and to love art.

Even though I'm being represented in a gallery and I have a degree in art, anyone can do craft and do art, and have it be really special and meaningful.

It's been really nice to talk to people about using textiles and reusing fabrics.

I'm really hoping to inspire just reflection on the ways that we think about the world, like caring for the earth and caring for each other, preservation of natural resources.

That's really important to me.

(bright upbeat music) - [Presenter] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pierce Motors.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

(bright lively music) In memory of Sue McDowell.

(bright lively music) The Carol Frank Buck Foundation.

(bright lively music) And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(gentle lively music)