Artwork copyright Christie Tirado. Photo courtesy of the artist, 2024.

Artwork copyright Christie Tirado. Photo courtesy of the artist, 2024.

Medicinal Tapestry, 2024

Christie Tirado
(Mexican American, born 1990)

Location: Washington State University - Spokane, Spokane

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Medicinal Tapestry by Christie Tirado depicts a central healer figure holding a bowl of medicinal plants, roots, and fungi, and surrounded by a variety of medicinal plants. The imagery and ideas are based on responses that Tirado received when she visited the site at the Washington State University Spokane. She held an art workshop on what "health, healing and wellness" means to the Spokane community. She notes "I want it to […] connect the idea of Western Biomedicine (which emphasizes science and technology) in healing practices, but also honor and celebrate ethno-medicine and the way non-western health systems and different cultures have and continue to use natural healing remedies, and acknowledge our relationship as humans with plants, animals and the natural world.”

The healer figure and plants were hand-carved and painted. The uncarved space of the panels is painted black. This design hints at Tirado's other artworks which are mainly woodcut and lino prints.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Washington State University.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Artist and art teacher Christie Tirado creates prints and drawings that explore her Mexican-American heritage and identity. Her art also focuses on the life of Hispanic migrant farmworkers, who often go unheard, unseen, and underappreciated. Tirado wants her prints to spark conversations about the realities of the labor carried out by America’s essential workers, and their value and contributions to Washington State and to the nation’s overall economy. She is the daughter of immigrants from Mexico.

Tirado graduated from Tacoma's School of the Arts, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington in 2013 and a Master in Teaching degree from Heritage University in 2016. She taught art to elementary and middle school students in the Yakima Valley, Central Washington for seven years. Christie is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.