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Kayla Powers

@kayla.powers

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place based textile artist ☁️🪨
📍Santa Fe, New Mexico

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🌸 Thank you so much to @affordableartfairtexas for inviting me to create this installation for the first edition of the fair in Houston! I’m bringing 30 naturally dyed, hand sewn, native Texas wildflowers with me next week.

I grew up in Texas but I’ve never been to Houston! Please send me your recommendations. And if you’re in town, please come by to say hi ☺️

Can’t wait to share more! taken in Texas by @kayla.powers

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15 hours ago

Saturday November 7th I’m teaching Botanical Watercolors at @okeeffemuseum in Abiquiú, New Mexico ✨ I’ve been foraging materials for us to use…cochineal, chamisa, willow, maybe I’ll even make some indigo pigment from my one giant indigo plant! AND I collected some mica from the mountains for us to crush up and add to the paint if you’re into a little shimmer.

The link to sign up is in my bio!

Gorgeous color charts by @ninepointedstar and other student work from this summer at Anderson Ranch!

#botanicalwatercolor #placebasedart #localcolor taken in New Mexico by @kayla.powers

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8 days ago

I’m excited to share that this piece is heading off to a private collection in Finland ☁️ Figuring out this open but structurally strong woven form was so exciting to me! I made the first panels in December 2024, continued working on them at AiR Green residency in Norway, and finished it at a residency at @austapestry !

I’m so grateful to @onnahouse for stewarding this piece and supporting my work and the work of so many women artists 🤍 by @kayla.powers

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11 days ago

‘Conditions Allow’ opens September 30 at North Seattle College! I’m excited to show alongside an amazing lineup of artists. The work in this exhibition explores possibilities and limitations of materials. “Through experimentation, materials become active collaborators inviting artists to manipulate, transform, resist, and discover what emerges through the process of making.” curated by @amandaknow

Flower Drawing # 3: Dried botanical matter arranged in a 6 x 3 grid on the floor, 2026
Dried flowers and leaves
66 x 30 x 1.5 inches

Trellis, 2024
Cotton, ixtle, wool, locally foraged cochineal
44 x 20 x 4 in

@supposed_lee
@jfernandez_art
@emily_gherard
@pinkcloudlabs
@debrakayes
@philippepirrip
Malavika Singh Thakur by @kayla.powers

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18 days ago

Thank you all so much for coming out to Chromatic Ecology! I am blown away by the turn out and just feel so grateful to get to make this work and to share it with you all. What a beeeautiful day. Most of the work has found a home but there are still a couple pieces left. Please reach out if you’re interested!

Huge thanks to my incredible assistant on this project @saint_fifth. To my family for squeezing the lemons for the Prickly Pear Lemonade, baking brownies and 1000 other tasks, to @yoyohamblett for so much support 🫂 to @mountaincloudzencenter for providing the dreamiest venue (and home) to The Puffin Foundation and @516_arts for the funding to make it all possible! To Grant for the many many conversations before, during, and after the project. And to the brave people who have chosen to purchase/steward an art work in this very unconventional way.

⛅️⛅️⛅️⛅️⛅️ taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico by @kayla.powers

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a month ago

Saturday September 5th!
1:00 - 3:00 pm
Santa Fe, NM
Free, outdoor, art show in the garden 🌱
See the last slide for more info!

I’m trying out a different model of ownership/stewardship of this work. I’m hoping the collectors (you!) will collaborate with me and this work by living with it for five years and then burying it / planting it.

There are flowers, seeds, roots, and rocks sewn (sown) into this piece and it’s made with all natural materials. The dyes come from plants (or in this case, cochineal) and the fabrics are all organic. Returning them to the earth feels interesting and right for this body of work. If you’re interested in participating, please be in touch.

A portion of all of the sales will go to Hózhó Center @hozhocenter 🐑

More info:

This style of piecing together fabric is similar to Jogakbo, a traditional Korean art form of sewing small pieces of fabric together, sometimes to create Bojagi or wrapping cloth. Please have a look, there are so many incredible artists working this way.

This way of working is also inspired by my family quilting traditions which have similar origins in frugality and necessity, tracing back four generations (that I know of) to the American South. My great-great Grandmother, Jim Bob Robertson, was a blue ribbon quilter in Tennessee and I am honored to have a quilt top she started but never finished which has inspired my exposed seams and delicate fabric.

This work like all of my work is an exploration of place through color. I’m foraging, cultivating, weaving, sewing, and dyeing to express a relationship with and as the living world. This project was funded by The Fulcrum Fund and The Puffin Foundation #chromaticecology #placebasedart @516_arts taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico by @kayla.powers

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a month ago

Saturday September 5th!
1:00 - 3:00 pm
Santa Fe, NM
Free, outdoor, art show in the garden 🌱
See the last slide for more info!

I’m trying out a different model of ownership/stewardship of this work. I’m hoping the collectors (you!) will collaborate with me and this work by living with it for five years and then burying it (or returning it to me to bury).

There are flowers, seeds, roots, and rocks sewn (sown) into this piece and it’s made with all natural materials. The dyes come from plants and the fabrics are all organic. Returning them to the earth feels interesting and right for this body of work. If you’re interested in participating, please be in touch.

A portion of all of the sales will go to an Indigenous-led Navajo Churro Wool Cooperative here in NM 🐑

More info:

This style of piecing together fabric is similar to Jogakbo, a traditional Korean art form of sewing small pieces of fabric together, sometimes to create Bojagi or wrapping cloth. Please have a look, there are so many incredible artists working this way.

This way of working is also inspired by my family quilting traditions which have similar origins in frugality and necessity, tracing back four generations (that I know of) to the American South. My great-great Grandmother, Jim Bob Robertson, was a blue ribbon quilter in Tennessee and I am honored to have a quilt top she started but never finished which has inspired my exposed seams and delicate fabric.

This work like all of my work is an exploration of place through color. I’m foraging, cultivating, weaving, sewing, and dyeing to express a relationship with and as the living world. This project was funded by The Fulcrum Fund and The Puffin Foundation #chromaticecology #placebasedart @516_arts taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico by @kayla.powers

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2 months ago

I’m weaving a color chart for my current project Chromatic Ecology ✨ I’ve been foraging and growing dye plants to create a series of textile pieces and this woven color chart to explore place-based color.

On September 5 I’m hosting an outdoor art show in the garden to show off all this work. I hope you can come! This project is funded by The Fulcrum Fund and Puffin Foundation ❤️

The madder root I grew this year (from seed! 🙏🏼 @grandprismaticseed) won’t be ready to harvest for at least two years so I bought ground madder root from Maiwa. And the indigo also came from Maiwa because I have one lone surviving plant from this very intense growing season here in Santa Fe.

#weaving #naturaldye #chromaticecology #placebasedart taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico by @kayla.powers

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2 months ago

I’m so excited to share that I received a Fulcrum Fund Grant for my project Chromatic Ecology! I’ll be dyeing fabric and yarn with plants that I grow and forage here in Santa Fe and making a series of fabric pieces and a weaving. This is the first piece I’ve made which is dyed with Cota, a native wildflower also known as Navajo Tea and green thread. This project will culminate with a free, public Garden Art Show on September 5 here in Santa Fe.

There are flowers and seeds sewn (sown) into this piece and it’s made with all natural materials. I’m going to try out a different model of ownership/stewardship of this work when they’re complete. Thanks to some wonderful conversations at Anderson Ranch especially with @ninepointedstar about the work of Tilke Elkins, I’m going to sell these works with the agreement that the piece be buried in 5 years. Returning the materials, dyes, and seeds to the earth. More on this to come 🌀

This style of piecing together fabric is similar to Jogakbo, a traditional Korean art form of sewing small pieces of fabric together, sometimes to create Bojagi or wrapping cloth. Please have a look, there are so many incredible artists working this way.

This way of working is also inspired by my family quilting traditions which have similar origins in frugality and necessity, tracing back four generations (that I know of) to the American South. My great-great Grandmother, Jim Bob Robertson, was a blue ribbon quilter in Tennessee and I am honored to have a quilt top she started but never finished which has inspired my exposed seams and delicate fabric.

This work like all of my work is an exploration of place through color. I’m foraging, cultivating, weaving, sewing, and dyeing to express a relationship with and as the living world. #chromaticecology #placebasedart @516_arts taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico by @kayla.powers

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3 months ago

I’m sending more Wildflowers out into the world today! You can find them this summer in New York at @onnahouse and in Traverse City with @kpcultural 🌸

Each flower started with researching and sketching and then I’d cut out the rough shapes, dye all the fabric with natural materials, and hand stitch them together. Each one is approximately 24 x 24 in by @kayla.powers

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3 months ago

I’ll be giving an artist talk at @taoscenterforthearts Thursday July 9 at 5:30pm! It’s free and open to all. I’d love to see you there.

I made this body of work about the land and the different relationships I was observing here in the high desert. Juniper and piñon act as a nurse species for each other, the mature trees provide shade from the sun and shelter from the wind, essentially creating a microclimate for the seedlings to become established. They both develop a web of lateral roots in addition to one super deep taproot about 20 feet deep. I’m using the fabric and thread scraps to speak to the cycle (Iike compost) the ongoingness. And I dyed the natural and second hand fabrics with juniper roots and piñon cones.

Juniper and Piñon, 2026
Cotton, linen, silk, fabric scraps, embroidery thread, juniper roots, piñon cones, 35mm photos printed on cotton, drop cloth
40 x 47 x 2 inches

Cloud Rocks, 2026
Cotton, silk, wool, natural dyes taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico by @kayla.powers

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3 months ago

This has been the most incredible week at @andersonranchartscenter 🌼 I’m so grateful to share this practice and connect with so many talented, generous, and curious people. We made watercolor paints (and ink, pastels, and milk paint, from natural materials) plus we foraged for plants, made color charts, and had countless great conversations. 🌸 #cultivatingcolor #chromaticecology #placebasedart taken in Anderson Ranch Arts Center by @kayla.powers

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4 months ago