Embroidered Collage

We had a fantastic meeting at work today about the direction of the company and growth opportunities in the future.  During a break I thought about my art and my career and it really hit me that I can't sustain a significant diversity of media with a full-time job, the stuff that needs to be done at home, and my sanity.  Currently, I'm spending a couple weeks on collage, have many fiber pieces I want to do, want to work on the painted lace some more, maybe try some monotyping.  I had already thought I might need to narrow down to effectively show and sell and had this half-formed idea I'd move back and forth until some pieces were accepted and then follow that path.

I went home and sat down and began scribbling, as that's the way I think best, trying to write down the answer to want do I want to do.  Where will I focus.  And the first part of my answer ended up being simple.  I want to stitch, by which I mean hand embroidery.  I find collaging and machine stitching and painting to be enjoyable, but the stitching by hand is what I love.  And part of a future artist's statement piled into my brain, although it might not be entirely true of my work to date.

I stitch.  A variety of surfaces support and enhance the embroidery, but what matters to me is the mark I make with the needle and thread I hold in my hand.  Whether the stitches are few and simple or many and complex, whether they are subordinate to the overall design or the focal point, they are the pivot point of my creations.

Not that this actually narrows down my previous query.  I'll still be going back and forth between my surface choices, but if I know what matters to me I can concentrate on it.  I won't be making paper only collages or many potential styles of art quilt.

I feel this is a natural development.  When I first became more interested in techniques outside of my old familiar cross-stitch it was the amazing books on manipulating stitches by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn that really got my attention.  It was the variety of possibilities in needlepoint and the fascination of needlelace that made me think.  And in my quilt-like pieces so far I've even said previously that I looked at the artform more as a new place to embroidery, even though I love the effects that many others can achieve with just fabric.  I'll mull the idea over a while and if it still feels right in a couple weeks I'll develop an official artist's statement.