dian soto vega

I am a Mexican craftswoman and textile artist based in the Netherlands.

My practice centers on material stewardship: working with fabric, thread, and handcraft as ensouled matter that carries memory, time, and belief. Through textile-based works, I explore how materials function as vessels of orientation, inheritance, and belonging.

Many of my works engage with landscape, directionality, and site, translating personal geographies (such as horizons, coordinates, and birthplaces) into sensory experiences.

At the core of my practice is an understanding of the earth as an active, maternal presence, and of humans as participants within a living, interconnected whole.

By working with humble, tactile materials, I seek to create spaces that invite reflection on home, migration, and the ways collective histories are held and transformed through matter.

works

she of the jade skirt / soft sculpture and quilt

Chalchiuhtlicue is a Mexica water goddess associated with groundwater, serpents, and the womb.

In the creation myth of the Five Suns, she ruled over the Fourth Sun (era), which ended in a great flood, transforming people into fish.

Her name comes from the Nahuatl words ‘chalchihuitl,’ meaning jade, and ‘cueitl,’ meaning skirt.

soft sculpture: 70×70 cm
quilt: 140×140 cm

trini / quilt

My great grandmother lived in the middle of the desert, with no one else around for kilometers.

Her house was made of adobe, and a pink peppercorn tree (pirul) stood next to it. She spent most of her life in that house.

I like to think that the tree was there to support her, sharing with her the knowledge of how to endure, persevere, and thrive despite the harsh environment.

200 x 140 cm

tlalnepantla / flag

I was born in Tlalnepantla, México.

Tlalnepantla comes from the Nahuatl words ‘tlali’ (earth) and ‘nepantla’ (in the middle).

I was born in the middle of the earth.

64 x 78 cm

anahuac / quilt

A story of migration. It begins with La Sierra de Guadalupe, a set of hills on the northern border between Mexico City and the State of Mexico, and ends with the mountain El Ajusco in the southwest of the city.

A line travels from the center to the other side of the quilt.

200 x 220 cm

book a workshop!

I offer textile workshops that create space for conversation, reflection, and community. Through stitching, fabric collage, and appliqué, participants engage with textiles while exploring a shared theme.

We combine making and dialogue: crafting together, exchanging stories, and reflecting on memory, care, landscape, migration, and collective life.

Workshops can take the form of a single gathering or a series of sessions. Depending on the time available, participants create individual pieces or contribute to a collective object, such as a blanket, banner, flag, bag, or wall piece.

The focus is on process, collaboration, and self-expression rather than technical perfection.

If you are interested in organizing a workshop or developing one for a specific event, institution, or community, feel free to get in touch to discuss possibilities and request a quotation.

Images from the workshop I facilitated for Sowing Solidarity, organized by Feminist Spatial Practices x PAF x BK-Feminist. Photographs by Sarah Mae Tönsmann.