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I first came across the work of Cindy Hickok when listening to a lecture by Barbara Lee Smith, the author of 'Celebrating the Stitch'. She spoke with insight about the textiles of a wide range of American artists. For me, the most fascinating aspect was the ability of these artists to express their ideas in words articulated eloquently by Barbara. The highly original titles ranged from thoughtful and serious to 'tongue in cheek' and witty.
'Witty' is the first word that comes to mind when thinking of Cindy's work. But it is a great deal more than that as she encapsulates complex ideas in small, beautifully worked images. Her piece in the recent 'Art of the Stitch' exhibition was very 'covetable' and was snapped up at the beginning. In her review (The World of Embroidery, September 1997), Audrey Walker described the piece in the following way. 'Family Ties was a perfect example of how much reference and resonance can be contained in a 37 x 37 cm. apparently guileless little object'.
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Cindy and her husband, Doyle, are frequent visitors to England and our paths have crossed several times. The first thing which strikes you on meeting her is her tremendous sense of humour and infectious laugh, complemented by Doyle's dry, droll outlook on life. She is also very focused on doing and seeing everything she can, and it is this embracing of life to the full that furnishes her with her ideas for her work.
She keeps a notebook and writes down sayings or ideas as they occur, to be stored up for future use. She notes quotations from the news, words that have double meanings, items from her reading and humorous situations. She also says that many of her ideas stem from the frustrations of life such as queuing and they can be inspirational if we see the humour of the situation. [[A bank of English phone booths, all full, prompted a piece 'Ello, Ello, Ello, Ello'.]] Cindy plays with words, makes lists with their variations, rhymes, ironies, repetitions, contrasts and surprises. A memorable piece featured a triangular pile of clearly defined people heaped on top of each other and simply titled 'Social Climbing'.
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Travel offers her the best opportunities for ideas. She says that when we are in new surroundings, our perceptions are sharpened and we can tap into this, whereas, in more familiar situations, we are less likely to notice the small but significant happenings. She feels that the key to producing memorable works is 'seeing, sensing, feeling, remembering'.
A very strong element in her work is the promotion of women and their activities 'not as a banner-carrying activist' but with a smile. Cindy describes herself as 'silently cheering on the women's movement'. She kindly gave me a piece which showed a woman in her leotard with her legs twisted round each other in a barley-sugar column and she has titled this 'I dance to the tune that is playing'.
Cindy and Doyle have two children and grandchildren; family is their first love although she says that her love of art runs a close second.
Cindy trained at Iowa State University where she gained a BS in Applied Art. She has worked with mosaics, weaving and soft sculpture and, in the early 1980s, created large dyed and quilted figures for installation in public buildings. However, Doyle's job in London for five years necessitated a change as she no longer had the facilities for large-scale pieces. She bought a sewing machine and visited a miniature textile exhibition in France. The conversion was complete. She knew she wanted to do small machine embroideries and has not looked back since. I stayed with her last year in Houston and saw her at work on some small panels she was preparing for an exhibition with her group of eight artists (called, very appropriately, 'Pieces of Eight'). She works meticulously on soluble fabric in machine embroidery. Figures feature strongly and the sizes vary from about 15 to 40 cm. in various formats.
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Cindy is frequently asked whether she starts with the title or the idea but she describes this as a chicken and egg situation. While she often thinks of the title first, at other times she has a concept and the title pops into her head as the work progresses. What she is quite adamant about is that she loves titles and always reads them in exhibitions as they sometimes say as much about the artist as the art. She fails to understand why artists leave work untitled and looks upon it as an opportunity missed.
One of the pleasures of staying with textile artists is that their houses are full of interesting things and Cindy's is no exception. She is surrounded by exciting, exotic and colourful objects. The family humour is the thread which holds them together and it was great to see someone whose work I enjoy, in context, to round off the picture. The happy memories I have of this visit are interspersed with imagery from her work and respect for an artist who takes her work seriously without being earnest and so makes some very incisive comments on society in a deceptively simple way.
Cindy Hickok will be running classes on 13-14 October 1998 at the Jinney Ring Craft Centre, Bromsgrove, Worcs. Details from Louise Burn on +44 (0)1527 873449.
Jean Littlejohn is an author, lecturer and member of the 62 Group. She exhibits nationally and internationally. With her friend and author, Jan Beaney, she has formed 'Double Trouble Enterprises' and the first two titles, Voluptuous Velvet and Vanishing Act, are now available. The reprint of their book A Complete Guide to Creative Embroidery was issued last September and a new, full colour stitch book written jointly will be published in the autumn by B T Batsford.
This article is from The World of Embroidery, Volume 49 No.4, © Jean Littlejohn 1998.
highlights from July 1998 issue