Threads

I’m not going to talk about the group blog GOING PUBLIC, ( www.a-n.co.uk/p/2133404/ ) very much, because that’s not the point, except to say, just once and move on, how much fun it is already; it has surprised me, already; I can see it being an important part of my practice, already!

…in a different space…

These footprints are going to take ages. I have stitched 5 in just over a week, there are 25 to do in all. It will be tedious at times I know, but I’m happy with them, they look “Nice” (ref David Minton’s blog – www.a-n.co.uk/p/484092/ )

But along with the tedium goes something deeper. I know what I’m working on for the next 3 weeks at least, maybe more. I have made all the decisions about size, shape, stitch, colour, density of stitching, composition, and even – for me a rarity – method of display once finished.

This gives me a head space I relish… repetitive stitching absorbs, yet gives your brain time to compute all the other crap. I will settle, digest, roam about my thoughts. I shall do a certain amount of wallowing in smugness that this piece will work.

I had yet another look at Bhimji’s Yellow Patch at Walsall yesterday. The fifth time of watching was as wonderful as the first, and as always I’ve come away inspired by the sound and its stillness. I have had an idea hot on the heels of it, that will need careful consideration as it is about how I display all of my work for the final show at the end of August. I might even make a bit of film… so the obsessional stitching will give the chance to do that considering in the best way possible for me… big smile!

I briefly considered dyeing this dress I’m using. The yellow is intense, buttery and egg-yolky. My own little Yellow Patch. How could I give that up?

Well. The Secret Project has been exposed! Julie Dodd, Franny Swann and little old me, we’ve started a group blog. It stems from an email conversation that started a while back, that may, or may not, lead up to us working together in some way.

These two relatively unknown women have become part of my online life. I just hope this weird and wonderful friendship can survive GOING PUBLIC…

www.a-n.co.uk/p/2133404

Oh yes. Stitches can be unpicked. I have the thought in my head quite a lot of the time, “oh yes” I say to my tutor, “unpick-ability is very important to me”. We nod sagely. But have I ever unpicked any of it. No. Not unless I’ve made a mistake. Never as a conscious artistic decision. I’ve been talking the talk, but not walking the walk.

The last picture posted on this blog is of stitches that no longer exist, other than as a pile of snipped threads on the work table that I haven’t yet bothered to throw away.

The fabric, the old, buttery yellow linen, looked really interesting with its footprint shaped area of holes (more dots, David Minton, just in case you read this), with little bits of fluff. The pile of ex-stitches on the table is interesting me too. The photograph I’m finding is haunting me somewhat. I killed these stitches. Then I trampled on their grave by stitching over with a different colour, in different holes. Such a betrayal.

There it is then… I have respect for the stitches. I often rescue embroidered items from charity shops, embroider over stains, or chop things up to re-use them, giving them extra life. Respect for the stitcher. So to undo my stitches for the purpose of the work, has up to now been a step too far.

Today, I think I shall ferret out a bit of someone else’s embroidery, an anonymous stitcher, and unpick it, just to see how it feels. I shall be a sociopathic dis-embroiderer.

Then when I’ve spent the month doing all these footprints, I might… MIGHT…. Unpick some of them….

Melodramatic? MOI?

Hmmm….

Does you good to look back a little sometimes, then you realise you ARE getting somewhere after all.

Over the last month I’ve been doing a bit of wrangling haven’t I?

The recording thing… ongoing… some sessions booked for the end of July for me to look forward to. The aim is to get at least one piece finished and shiny for my finals… if we have time for more we will do more. But better to do one piece properly than 2 badly I feel.

The personal therapy is going well. I’m listening to the sound of my own voice. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. The drawings of my Mum have sent me searching for more old photos. This might not go anywhere, but I’m enjoying it, and making links in my head.

I’ve now made 3 “bodies” so that I can hang all three sets of garments together in a family group. Like it. That physical solution now leaves me time and brain space to solve the next problem of the “mothers” dress. I’ve decided it has to be bare footprints, so now I’m trying different sorts of thread. I also quite like the idea of unpicking, but I have to do that almost as it is hanging, washed, starched and ironed, so the holes still show… bit risky if it doesn’t work.

NOT STUCK! Hurray!

Sent in the proposal for Junction, almost finished the next one.

Last few days have been spent emailing and shuffling the music programme for Life and Other Art in July. I love this bit. This year we’re putting together a soundcloud group to enable people to have a listen to all the performers before and after the event, all in one place. So far three artists have posted stuff, and the combination sounds just brilliant.

My website is a bit webshite at the moment… waiting for technical hoo-hars to get righted so that all the work I’ve done is available to people.

Last of all, I’ve just noticed that this blog of mine is number one for both February and March. To be honest I’m stumped as to why as it seems so ordinary to me, writing about the incoherent rubbish in my head… but then, that’s what I like to read in other blogs , so maybe that is exactly why. So thank you for reading everyone…. Unless…. And this has occurred to me…. That the numbers are so high because one person clicks on it accidentally then falls asleep at their computer from the tediousness of it all.

I know two posts in one day is a bit much, but I wanted to put these photos up quickly to see if there’s any comment or response.

Footprints, baby ones, on a woman’s dress… as a sort of counterpoint to the adult handprints on children’s clothes. I haven’t decided where these prints should go yet, also, whether they should be footprints or shoe prints. Should I do a simple track across the dress, or should I overlap them in a sort of tramply manner?

So these tissue templates are supposed to help me decide. Whatever I decide will eventually be stitched in a similar way to the hands, small, repetitive, simple stitching. I need to decide quickly because if I want to do loads it’s going to take me weeks.

Don’t you find photos help, they sort of compress things into a small view, 2D… Somehow the brain finds it easier to process as an image, than a life size dress with life size feet on it?