So we'll have to settle with some shots from last week and a promise to go pick up my camera.
I've been working on some new things, which I will be happy to show you once I get the camera. In particular, I'm thinking about letters and text in embroidery. I've done a lot of text in the past using split stitch or backstitch to essentially write, but I'm trying to think about different ways to fill in letters. I'm particularly inspired by Jillian Tamaki's Penguin Threads book covers. The lettering on The Secret Garden is exquisite. So creative and full of life and energy.
What makes for a sense of energy in visual art? How does an artist create or convey energy on the canvas, energy the eye can see or that the heart can understand? For me, somehow, embroidery is an extraordinary medium for harnessing the energy of the artist. This is why I keep returning to the embroidery. I am certain that for me, much of the power behind embroidery is in the use of colors combined with line and with the three-dimensional aspect of the physical pieces. There is also something intimate about those stitches, the way each artist has so deliberately attended to each stitch, each little piece of each line. I'm not certain, though, why I find the same lines less interesting when drawn or painted.
Texture certainly plays a role. Who doesn't love the peaks and valleys of Van Gogh's work? The layers of paint reaching out to the viewer. Still, you can't touch a Van Gogh. I mean, not unless you want to get full-body tackled by a security guard and then arrested.
In any case, I'm trying to work through these thoughts and I'm looking forward to an entire day off tomorrow! Sarah is taking Ellis to a band concert in Peoria. I wonder how I will possibly fill all that time!
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