Other embroidered faces

    This text was mean to be posted on January 13th. The flu prevented that from happening. My apologies.

Allrighty….we’re entering a strange new phase with this blog. Until now, I went back and forth between stitching and researching. You would see the results of my search on one project, along with the stitched results of another project. Now, I’m doing a very long term project. For the first time ever, I am not researching a new project while sewing!

     I’m searching further about the work I’m currently doing.  As my art has morphed from embedded objects to painting with thickened dyes to this impossibly slow stitching, I find myself using a technique developed by others. I’m not experimenting with creating a new textile technique - I’m trying to master a very old one. So I need to see how other artists are working on this. Take a look:

‘American artist cayce zavaglia considers herself a painter, yet has difficulty considering her work of embroidered portraits as painting themselves.  Her realistic impressions of people are executed using crewel embroidery wool, for which over time she has created a system of sewing threads in a sequence that gives the appearance of a particular color or tone – her method of ‘mixing’ colors. threads are sewn in precise directions in order to mimic the way lines are layered in a typical drawing an allusion of depth, volume and form. throughout her series of work, the stitches have become tighter and more complex. Each piece is hand embroidered and in total zavaglia has a developed 14 portraits thus far.     https://www.designboom.com/art/cayce-zavaglia-embroidered-portraits/

Well, Cayce Zavaglia certainly beats my technique!  Dear god, the woman is better than Opus Angelicanum!

Then we have  Catherine Tipping’s embroidered digital portraits. Artist Catherine Tipping created this series of fascinating portraits called “Filter,” which questions how digital images communicate differently from photographs in stunningly embroidered images https://makezine.com/2014/07/25/catherine-tippings-embroidered-digital-portraits/

It looks like she’s doing this on needlepoint canvas. While her stitching is fairly straightforward, the concept is BRILLIANT! One of those ‘I-wish-I’d-thought-of-that” ideas. I love the way she’s experimenting with different ways to combine the embroidery technique with the computer imagery. God, she’s GOOD!

While Googling around, I came upon the work of Jane Perkins:  

Jane Perkins  I am a 're-maker', taking inspiration from found objects and working them into something new. Although my background is in textiles, I now work predominantly with plastic. I love art with an element of fun and the unexpected, and hope my work will make you smile! http://www.bluebowerbird.co.uk/info.htm ~

These 3 artists are each doing world-class, absolutely top-notch art. Why are none of them famous? How come I hadn’t heard of any of them until I did this search? (because you need to get out and LOOK more, Diane). Yes, well……

As you read this, I will be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art In NYC, viewing 700year old textiles….Nope! The flu caused me to cancel my visit, but even before I cancelled, I learned that the items I had requested are NOT available for viewing.  Yes, in addition to other changes, I’m now writing awfully close to posting. Hope to have GREAT Opus Angelicanum images to show you next week! Contact me at dianesavona@aol.com