Narrative Embroidery: A day in a Mining Village

Work In Progress

Mixed Media Embroidery

 paint,feather,embroidery on Linen

 I picked up the crows feather when I was visiting an old mining village in England with my mother and sister. The blue circle is reminiscent of a mining wheel similar to the one in the photo.  As a child I used to see these from my bedroom window in the next  village (Houghton-le-Spring) and watch the bins going back and forth dumping slag, kind of like in this video. I imagined the slag heaps were beautiful mountains. 

If you watch the movie Get Carter I was living there when it was filmed (even have a cousin playing an extra in it).  It shows the darker side of my world at that time. 
About the Embroidery
It has a version of a Scarlet Macaw (new world in America) feather in stitch and a crows feather (old world in England) painted with dots. The crow and macaw speak of what I needed to do as I faced the onslaught of fragmentation at home and the loss wrought by the watchful eyes of others that consumes people you love. 
 PHEW! heavy stuff, eh!