Transformative Threads
The simple power of thread. It’s ability to fix and join, to connect and mend what was broken, to adorn and decorate that break, to celebrate its imperfection. To create something new, something different, simply by weaving it through another material.
Untitled, 2023
Mixed media. Acrylic, ink, thread, acrylic pen, and beads on reclaimed map canvas.
17 x 10 cm approx.
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My current practice explores the use of threaded detail to embroider the broken lines and fractures in the paintwork of discarded pieces of the old reclaimed maps that I use as canvases for previous works. These maps are worn, fissured, torn. The layers of acrylic paint and ink of my painting process place more stresses on the material, creating splits and cracks. Using thread to rejoin the fractures, to embrace the flaws, drawing attention to them, I am interested in the idea of thread’s transformative power. Taking a material that is discarded or perceived as broken, and remaking it into something new.
Drawing on my very first creative practice as a child, learning dressmaking skills from my mum, the creative process in the development of these new artworks is also a personal journey into my own evolution as an artist. A re-connecting with my formative years as a creative and an exploration of when and how someone identifies as an artist
Untitled, 2023
Mixed media. Acrylic, ink, acrylic ink, glitter, thread and beads on reclaimed map canvas.
22 x 8 cm approx.
Work in progress, detail, 2023
Mixed media. Acrylic, ink, acrylic pen, gilding wax, thread, beads on map paper.
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41 x 28cm, full piece.
Untitled, 2023
Mixed media. Acrylic, ink, thread, acrylic pen, and beads on reclaimed map paper.
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15 x 8cm.
Untitled, 2023
Mixed media. Acrylic, ink, thread, beads, and glitter on reclaimed map canvas.
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27 x 5cm.