Genevieve Guadalupe – Book #1
El amor, las mujeres y la vida. Mario Benedetti
For this year’s series, I decided to work with a poem of one of my favourite Latin American authors, Mario Benedetti. Mario Benedetti (1920-2009) was an Uruguayan writer who was best known for his short stories and poetry. His writing is sincere and light, often praising women for their strength and beauty. Even in his time of political exile, his style remained positive, seeing his journey through the world as a new adventure, a beautiful discovery.
I am working this series with his poem “Te quiero” from the book “El amor, las mujeres y la vida”. My goal is to show the beauty, delicateness and strength of women. I chose to work in black and white to simulate the feel of a book and using my straight quilting lines in contrasting black to mimic the lines of words on the book pages. The poem is written in Spanish on the quilts but I will write the translation of the verses used for the quilt.
I love you Mario Benedetti
Your hand is my caress
my daily reminders
I love you because your hands
work hard for justice
If I love you, it’s because you are
my love my accomplice my all
and out in the street arm in arm
we are much more than two
Materials and technique: cotton fabric, cotton batting, poly thread. Raw edge applique, machine thread drawing, machine quilted.
FIFTEEN BY FIFTEEN 
Stunning, I really like the black and white interpretation. Great work, I think you achieved your goal!
I have always been fascinated by your works and here you confirm it again. Your play between black and white and the minimalism of the drawing create magnificent and persuasive graphics. I can say only amazing and congratulations.
Love everything in this piece – the poem and the brilliant execution of it in fabric, simple perfect!
Interesting work and excellent execution. The stitching is beautiful and I really like the flora that decorates the work.
So nice to get a bit acquainted with an author unknown to me. Your piece is stunning, the use of black and white extremely effective as well as the straight line stitching. Those flowers are such a lovely addition. Wonderful!
Easily recognizable style, perfectly designed. Love the contrast. It really express the idea that less is more. As in poetry so much is said in-between the lines, so in your quilt so much is said behind just black and white. Bravo!
When I saw this quilt I knew it was yours ! The purity of the lines and the economy of colour are very effective ! I like how the poem is running on the body …
I love that you have chosen to work in black and white and have included straight line quilting, both indicating the book inspiration. The lady is beautifully rendered and the details added are perfect. Great work
The use of black and white is visually exciting and draw the viewer in for close examination. The embroidered flowers are a nice addition.
Wauw!!! It’s hard to believe you did the small words and flowers by machine stitching.
Beautiful work. The use of monochrome and straight lines are great ways to refer to printed text. I love the flowers.
When I saw this quilt I could not wait to read about it, it is so impressive and such a powerful interpretation. Bravo
Wow! You have captured Benedetti’s powerful storytelling in your striking composition. Love the contrasts you created in your color scheme and the straight quilting lines against the beautiful and delicate curves of the female body, flowers and words. Love it!
Awesome work. The fragile flowers over the black silhouet of the woman are stunning. A wonderful idea to choose black and white and straight lines to mimic the words of a book and I am in awe with the perfect embroidery of the poem on the body.