A life of creation: Designer Patricia Michaels named 2024 Living Treasure

May 22—Patricia Michaels' hand-painted textiles tell stories of snowy aspens, mountain walks and raindrops, as well as birth, struggle and triumph.

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) has named the Santa Fe designer the 2024 recipient of its Living Treasure Award.

The award is part of the annual MIAC Native Treasures Art Market on Memorial Day weekend. It honors Native American artists who have made outstanding artistic contributions to the field of Indigenous arts and culture.

"When they told me, I cried," Michaels said in a telephone interview from Santa Fe. "I was like, what? Are you serious? Are you going to change your mind?"

The artist is known for her haute couture designs.

Growing up in Santa Fe and Taos, she was surrounded by beauty — the cultures, landscapes and the art, all of which influenced her design aesthetic.

She became widely known through participation in the Emmy Award-winning season 11 of "Project Runway."

When Michaels was growing up, her family members and friends made their own ceremonial clothing. From the age of 4, she sat at her mother's feet as she cut and sewed hand-me-down clothing to fit her daughter. Her grandfather brain-tanned his own deer hide to stitch his own moccasins.

"I learned different techniques and styles and I thought it was fascinating," Michaels said.

"They were very prolific in my family," she added. "They would dance and they would sing. There wasn't a pair of hands I didn't appreciate."

By the time she was in Santa Fe High School, she was designing sports and cheerleader uniforms. It formed the nucleus of her self-expression outside of the pueblo.

Michaels lived in the old Taos Pueblo with her grandparents for three years as a teenager.

Later, she worked in the Santa Fe Opera's costume department, a job she had dreamed of since childhood.

"I knew it was the only place where I could learn good production," she said.

Michaels studied at both the Institute of American Indian Arts and, following the example of her mentor Lloyd Kiva New, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Her textile designing flourished and she set up a company, PM Waterlily LLC. The label combines her initials and her Native name, Waterlily.

"Years later, I went to Italy and worked with an Italian tailor," she added.

Michaels was the first Native American to have a label at New York's Fashion Week, and the first to appear on "Project Runway."

During the show's 11th season, Michaels presented a blue dress covered with handcrafted mica pendants and a head piece whose filaments veiled the model's face. She placed first runner-up.

Today, her designs weave haute couture with traditional Native motifs, much of it on silk.

"I had a pet black widow in the fourth grade," Michaels said. "I wanted to see how silk is made. It was very fast and messy. I feel like that transferred itself into my inner child. I reinvent and reinvent, and that always calls me."

She sometimes begins by sketching out her ideas on paper. When she's feeling particularly inspired, she paints directly onto the fabric.

Paper bread is her latest inspiration. Also known as piki bread (Hopi Pueblo) and pe' lee bread (Taos Pueblo), it's made using blue cornmeal.

"It translates really well in the silk," Michaels said. "They're very asymmetrical garments."

She often translates flowers from nature, using layers of ethereal silk. Fiber reactive dye becomes her paint.

In 2023, Michaels dressed the Canadian actress Tantoo Cardinal for the Cannes Film Festival premiere of "Killers of the Flower Moon," directed by Martin Scorsese. IAIA bought the dress for its collection.

"It was all hand-painted eagle feathers," Michaels said. "Those are my signature.

"She called me and asked me if I was interested," she continued. "An hour later, I had the designs."

Michael's work can also be seen in the MIAC exhibit "Painted By Hand: The Textiles of Patricia Michaels."