For the past year, Amanda Valdez has been contending with gratitude as a tool to navigate stress, loss, and tragedy after the tumultuous past year saw her lose a parent and become a mother. Her process begins by “dislodging” ideas with small-scale drawings with shapes that emerge from motherhood, growth, and relationships. Utilizing both hand-dyed and commercially sourced fabrics, Valdez then sews the shaped panels of fabric into the canvas before stretching it over the frame, and then paints with a combination of oil stick, gouache, acrylic, and embroidery. This body of work also introduces weaving and quilting as an element in her paintings after experimenting with her four harness floor loom.