Leila Daw was born an artist. For a brief period growing up, at her parent’s insistence, she tried studying something practical — Chemistry — but she eventually would commit to art full time. “If I stopped making art I would be dead,” says Daw. Her medium changes according to the subject matter, and Daw has worked in painting, printmaking, skywriting, sculpture, installation, performance and public art. For the past several years, Daw has made trips to Myanmar where she works with traditional Burmese tapestry craftswomen to create collaborations which are sometimes as large as 5’ x 19’ spanning eight panels. “I paint designs on canvas and we work together to make them into partially finished tapestries, which I bring home, stretch as canvasses, and finish as mixed media pieces,” elaborates Daw. Underlying all of her work is a strident Feminism and a belief in the Female principles within the Universe. This includes our relationship to the Mother Earth and environmental issues. Her piece Wathondere, for instance, is titled after a SE Asian Earth Goddess. Daw has been known to adapt cartography — map making — in her practice in an attempt to understand our place on the planet in relationship to mythology, archaeology and geology. Mostly you can find her in the studio. She works out of an old toy factory in New Haven, in addition to her time spent in Myanmar. “And I sketch ideas when I have them, wherever I happen to be.” Daw’s biggest challenge at the moment is finding the time to concentrate on art-related projects as she is caring for and witnessing her husband’s devastating decline from Parkinson’s disease. Art-wise, she has a series of shipwrecks and inundations — a metaphor for our battered state in the current political climate, and a meditation on sea level rise — in process. Golden threads, beads and sequins sparkle like active water in this particular work rof shwe chi doe kalaga (Burmese tapestry) and mixed media.
Learn more at www.LeilaDaw.com