Betsy Sterling Benjamin

The alchemy of paint brushed over a waxy crayon surface intrigued me even as a young child. Later, in college, I learned that this was called batik and still later I learned it was referred to, in Japan, as roketsu-zome or rozome. By then I was hooked. The flow of hot wax on a smooth surface, the glow of dye on silk, the interplay of pattern and color have kept me involved with this process for almost forty years now.

Working with applied dyes and hot wax on silk is a meditative process for me, centering and ecstatic, planned and spontaneous. I work with color and pattern; mark-making with resist-dye techniques using the materials of acid dye, ganryo pigment and occasionally silk thread, all researched as part of my early studies in the kimono industry of Kyoto.

Although I first studied batik in Iceland and later beside the Water Palace in Yogyakarta, my work clearly reflects eighteen years of life in Japan. Inspiration comes from winter studios in Spain, Costa Rica and Indonesia and also from research and the writing of The World of Rozome: Wax Resist Textiles of Japan for Kodansha International Publishers. My scrolls, screens and paintings have been included in more than fifty exhibitions world-wide with solo exhibitions in Japan, the USA, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Germany, and England. I enjoy sharing my background and techniques with diverse groups. I lecture and conduct workshops, each year, in the USA, Europe and Asia while continuing to teach Surface Design at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.

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) involving communities around the world. As cloths of healing and unity, one for each continent, they were on site in Machu Picchu, Antarctica, Zimbabwe, Spain, Tasmania, Minnesota and Kyoto. More and more, my work is a meditation and a centering in this diverse world.