Show and Tell

Work in progress: traditional tapestry closeup, 2012

With a blog entitled, Threads, it would come as no surprise that a lifelong past-time of mine is needlework of all types: sewing, embroidery, needlepoint, cross stitch, knitting.  A favourite is tapestry work.  I find it engaging yet relaxing, creative -- particularly when I develop my own designs, unlike the sample above that I am currently working from a printed canvas kit -- and rewarding.   I love that the threads of such endeavours span back generations and across many cultures, but what I find the most exciting is that although the process of needlework is very traditional, it can still generate modern forms.  And when that form crosses from the realm of craft to art, well...  for this formally trained artist, that is simply the best.   

Through the Eye of the Needle

 

Abbi, 2011

Elly, 2000

Artist Cayce Zavaglia has turned the art of embroidery on its head by employing the technique often associated with samplers and handkerchiefs to create photo-realist portraits.  Her subject matter is family and friends, and pieces can take anywhere from eight weeks to seven months to complete by hand.  Isn't it breathtakingly beautiful when you consider that each image is composed of thousands of tiny stitches layered atop one another?  And, isn't it inspirational?  Don't you just want to run out and create something that is as personally meaningful and as an original an interpretation of... (now, you fill in the rest).

Woven Web

 

Like Zavaglia, Emil Lukas enjoyed craft projects as a child; as an artist, Lukas draws on accessible, everyday, often discarded materials -- the interior of an old piano, or a box of tangled threads -- to create works of art.  The tangled threads of silk have been reimagined into thread paintings that seem to generate an ethereal glow from within.  The threads, nearly 100,000 individuals lines per painting, are woven by hand around the edges of a shallow box whose interior is painted white.  The glow is generated by a looser density of threads in the centre and a more concentrated volume along the edges.   Don't you think the words that come to mind when looking at such a work are awe-inspiring and beautiful?  To my mind, they seems to capture a kind of spiritual sense, too.  And if the thread paintings aren't incredible enough, he has also produced works that suggest a woven, tangled nest, but are created by larvae moving through ink.  Isn't that wild?  How does that open up the world of creative possibility for you?

 





                         Liquid Silk Light, 2012                                                                                                    Untitled, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top photo D. Sleziak;

All other images via Elle Decor