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I was floundering and needed to find a new direction. Battling for years with paint, brush and canvas gave little satisfaction; something always seemed to be missing. It was while living in California that I was first introduced to 'stitch'.
I decided to return to education and took a BA in general art. A young Japanese teacher suggested placing a few running stitches in a collage and that was it - I was hooked. Previous thoughts of textile art pictured it as strange three-dimensional pieces having macramé tendencies. On returning to England, I took my City & Guilds Parts 1 and 2 at Salisbury and Urchfont Colleges. The hand embroidery was a struggle but very useful as it gave me exposure to all the different techniques in use today (I cannot look at a piece of Hardanger without feeling slightly queasy!).
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Coming from a background of drawing and painting has given me a passion for the human form but this is not the easiest subject matter to be translated into textiles. Getting away from the flat two dimensional image and giving my work more depth (without changing the surface of the fabric) was a challenge. In addition to the figure, I like to use a background of pattern which helps to add texture and colour. Pattern, like texture, helps to slow down the eye.
Working from photographs is, for me, the best source of information. To that end I have accumulated a rather strange selection of photography books in my workroom; our window cleaner has been giving me rather odd looks recently. Other influences and inspiration come from studying artists such as De Kooning, Lucien Freud, Degas, Stanley Spencer and numerous others. I attend life drawing classes as often as possible to keep my hand in and, when textiles overwhelm me, I return to painting, bouncing between the two, which helps my work. A lot of time is spent painting and sketching out my ideas.
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I use the machine a great deal for its speed and uniformity, often working from the back of the work to take advantage of the unpredictable occurrences that can arise, sometimes good, sometimes awful. The rhythm of the sewing machine is very therapeutic and it is no hardship to sit there for hours with my Walkman plugged in. Sometimes, this is, perhaps, too relaxing, as discovered when realising that my 110 needle had punctured my forefinger. The nurse in the Accident & Emergency asked me if I had been sewing curtains; how do you explain? In addition to stitch, a combination of fabric dyes are used together with silk screen inks overlaid with acrylic paint for its opaqueness.
I have gone on to exhibit successfully over the last five years, mostly in group exhibitions, and am always appreciative of positive feedback. As art is such a solitary occupation, it is sometimes very hard to retain self confidence and when pieces sell it is a great boost.
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My current work is a series of hangings which incorporate multiple figures to suggest a relationship and narrative in the work. So far, the majority of my work has been with a single figure. Individual portraits establish a direct one-to-one between viewer and image but the situation becomes more complex when several figures are involved in a relationship within the space of the painting or textile.
I feel that the desire to reproduce the human form in one way or another will always be with us. Trends and 'isms' will come and go but the nude will always be a consistent theme. Throughout all the changing styles and themes of art, painters and sculptors seem to return to one fundamental point, the study of the human figure.
This article is from The World of Embroidery, Volume 50 No.3, © Sue Macarthur.
highlights from May 1999 issue