Arts and Crafts

In the midst of all of the holiday blah, blah, blah, I have been able to find some time for stitching.  I'm working on a sampler piece, adding layers of embroidery to vintage linens.  This piece reflects my thinking about composition and line, scale and color.  I'm trying to expand my skills, incorporating new stitches as well as more drawing.  Many of the images on this piece were hand-drawn by me.  I've never liked my own drawings, which I feel has really held me back from creating original pieces.

I'm a writer by training and by nature.  Writing was what came most easily for me and it was what I was the best at without practicing.  Visual art, by contrast, took so much work and it started out so ugly.  So I didn't do it.  And then I learned to knit, which opened the floodgates of making things.  Before long, I was making everything.  Knitting, crochet, sewing, embroidery, collage, screen-printing, beading.  Of course, I called it "crafting."  It took a long time for me to admit to myself and others that I was making art, you know, like an artist might do.  And even after I came out of the art closet, I still struggled--and continue to struggle--with drawing.  I don't enjoy looking at the lines I make.  This piece is me addressing that.  And I have to say, it's going okay.

Of course, there's always room for crafting!  As a parent, you just never know when you're going to need to make a quick mermaid.  Ellis did the beading and flowers.  Sarah did the hair and face.  I did the clothing.  Family mermaid.