I Travel Not Alone

Given my recent declaration about the business of art a fellow blogger Claire very kindly directed me towards this New York Times Article, titled "Tight Times Loosen Artists Creativity, and I thought, uh huh! Yep! Exactly! It is really nice to know I'm not alone.

"Many artists echoed Ms. Holland, testifying that the recession had strengthened their commitment to their work or allowed them to concentrate on their art".

It's funny but once I made the decision the creative floodgates opened.

Before Art
I did this about 7 /8 years prior to taking up art in 1995 at the age of 40. It's interesting to look at the differences before and after.

This is done from a transfer and is very traditional, and pristine.

After Art
I am discovering that my embroidery is not much different than my painting in that I like a little rough edge, not so precious and with some evidence of the drawing/materials beneath.

I was inspired and wanted the challenge of doing a skeleton after seeing Angelo Filomeno's work, but I found in the process that as beautiful as the work is, it looks perfect technically. I LOVE it, but I seem to like that human imperfection, that raw quality. I used a fabric marking pen to draw the skeleton out on the reverse side of synthetic silk. I also want some of the drawing lines to show, and the satin stitch NOT be perfect. Because I had no reference for what type of stitching or stitching direction I just had to figure it out which in my mind helps reinforce the imperfections and fragility of life.

I have a new blog link called MrXStitch and if you want to see something different then check out the most amazing examples of contemporary embroidery around.

Yellow Springs Ohio
On our daily doggie walk I came across this and was delighted that someone took the time to leave a note and my cheap horrid but much loved sunglasses on a tree stump. Whoever you are, THANK YOU. It was a lovely reminder of why I love living in Yellow Springs & the simple kindnesses here that make it is so special.

I wonder how many times people walk past this beautiful iron fence in Kings Yard and never notice it. The sun was making everything sparkle one day, the shadows danced across the path and I saw it for the first time, I mean really saw it. What a beautiful piece of ironwork.

Hum, I wonder if I can use it in an embroidery :)