Mixing paint and embroidery

Work in Progress
Experiments in mixing media
"You begin with the possibilities of the material"
Art Quotes

I like that quote and that's what I've been trying. I experimented with a photo transfer of one of my paintings (which has been used for sticker street art quite a bit) on muslin to embroider over. I painted on the embroidery floss itself. I did the lips in white satin stitch and then added gentle strokes of acrylic grey wash over the embroidery. The black area is long and short stitch in embroidery floss. I've been itching to incorporate embroidery into some sort of assemblage, but still trying to figure out how. Somehow I just want to tack this up on some wood.

Influences
I am reading about one of my fave artists, Robert Rauschenberg
(Off the Wall by Calvin Tomkins) whose work I've always loved and been intrigued by.

Image source

I have such difficulty with bringing so many elements together (one of the reasons I love graffiti too), particularly incorporating text into a painting. Somehow it is easier with embroidery, which is odd. Rauschenberg was a master at bringing elements together and recontextualizing them with his "combines". Somehow I have to figure out how I can put my work into a piece that becomes part of a bigger picture.

"A Cat Visits"

and decides to sleep in my bowl on my front porch. I think it's a stray and been trying to adopt us. It has camped out at our front door for the last few days. Normally my dog chases cats but this one seems to have soothed his doggie ways.
Update: It deserted us when a neighbour gave it some of their cat's food.

Comments

Leanne Pizio said…
Love the new work. I think the embroidery really adds to the texture and feel of the painting. MAkes you want to reach out and touch.
The kitty is super cute in your pot.
Lady P said…
i love the realms you a treading with your stitch work
and those demonlike lips
lovely
cats
humph!
so persnickety
i wanted to hear that it stayed
Lori Gravley said…
I love the way you've merged the transfer and the embroidery. You can also paint floss with DyeNaFlow before you use it without much change to the way it stitches.
jafabrit said…
thanks for the tip laughing LG :)
No Lady P, the cat and her friend begged at the next door for a day or so and haven't been here.
Thanks for the feed back Leanne :)
Lana Gramlich said…
Awesome new works...and that photo of the kitty in the flowerpot is absolutely PRECIOUS. :)
Yellow said…
I just love this, I stared for ages at it, before reading on to find out what medium you'd used.

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