I have decided to stop using ‘Blogger’ and come back to ‘WordPress’. My old blog can be found here; please visit for information about past projects such as Knit and Stitch 2015, Art in Action 2015 and New Worke at Newark Park with Brunel Broderers, 2016.
I am an interdisciplinary artist and mainly work with stitch and photography. I am particularly interested in creating beauty from the ordinary thing that may be lost, damaged or simply forgotten. I work in an obsessive manner with attention paid to the smallest detail, but the magic happens in the final process when the supporting structure for my stitches drawings is washed away. I work in this way so that I am made to explore my feelings when a project that strives for perfection, looses all control and finds another questionable meaning.
This is a new thread drawing for Art in Action, 2016. The drawing is made with the same technique, obsessive stitching with marathon embroidery threads on vilene solufleece (a dissolvable fabric) which is removed in the final stage.
At first I had mixed views about this piece; the drawing resembles a softer image, perhaps more typical of an embroidery theme. However, the reasons behind the work still play with my ideas of obsession and control, my need to make sure that everything is ok for my boys growing up without their dad. After he died we would visit Spain and stay with my in-laws, Grandad would take then the boys to the local churros cafe where they would dip into luscious cups of thick chocolate with crispy strips of sugary batter. We would always take some bars home, and when difficult issues were being resolved or simply sharing news of a busy day at school, we would make and enjoy large mugs of luscious hot chocolate, topped with marshmallows and cream.
This week I discovered Michelle Hamer in ‘Embroidery Magazine’. Hamer’s documentary photographs are recreated with wool on plastic grids in a painterly way. The images have an architectural sense and are not typical for the medium. Hamer states that she enjoys capturing messages from ‘the in-between spaces’.
A few weeks ago I was on walking down Park Street in Bristol. My aim was to collect images from one street location and use them for inspiration for some small embroidered drawings for cards to sell at ‘Art in Action’. I prefer urban decay and damage, not evident to passer-byes; the interesting patterns and the unexpected material that can be used for embroidery.
