Summer 2022

For the past few months I’ve been busy designing & stitching a new artwork named ‘Summer 2022’ . 

Last year I was honoured to be invited by artist Harry Meadley to take part in Free-For-All at Touchstones Rochdale from 7-10th September 2022.

I created an event called ‘Stitched Memories’ to collect Rochdale’s memories of the 2022 heatwave for a new artwork – a companion piece to Summer ‘76. The responses were handwritten on postcards and displayed within the gallery.

My original idea was to create a single artwork of around 400 words. In reality, after collating so many wonderful hand written phrases a unique story started to evolve – enough for two artworks.

The artworks cover the period from early summer, through the heatwave and drought and end with the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II (which occurred during the time I was at Free-For-All).

Each piece is 21 x 21cm, hand embroidered and hand stitched with vintage Sylko thread onto cotton cloth. 

Summer 22 Part 1
Summer 2022 Part 1
Summer 22 Part 2
Summer 2022 Part 2
Part 1 - detail
Part 1 – detail
Part 1 - detail
Part 1 – detail
Part 2 - detail
Part 2 – detail

This is the first time I’ve created an artwork from a ‘Stitched Memories’ event and would definitely like to host another one in the future.

Thank you the curators at Touchstones, Harry Meadley and all the visitors who contributed to Summer 2022.

Hello from England

This handwritten postcard called ‘Hello from England’ is part of a postcard exhibition at Marion Branch JC Public Library, Jersey City, NJ, USA curated by Walk Bye. The artwork features an extract from ‘Giant Cauliflower Harvest‘.

The theme of the exhibition – ‘The Surprising Thing about Gratitude’ – made me think about things I’m very grateful for – a childhood full of freedom, love and home-cooked food. These warm memories have inspired a great deal of my own embroideries including Giant Cauliflower Harvest.

The Surprising Thing about Gratitude Exhibition
The Surprising Thing about Gratitude Exhibition
Hello from England
Hello from England

To send a postcard in today’s digital world is a simple, and incredibly underrated experience. It’s an expression to acknowledge others especially outside this new, mostly virtual way of life. A postcard expresses a desire to maintain a connection regardless of where the sender and the receiver may be. In addition to the beauty of the created or manipulated postcard, the story also includes the handwriting, which is peculiar to a specific person, the precision, or lack thereof of the placement of the postage stamp(s), the stories told by damage that can be incurred during its travels – all carry a rich narrative and establish a profound, interpersonal connection that simply cannot exist in cyberspace…. The theme is “The Surprising Thing about Gratitude”. We encourage you to use lots of words and/or phrases in your submission, please use your native language, or that of the place you are living in… it DOES NOT need to be English only.

Walk Bye
Message to New Jersey
Message to New Jersey

This is latest Walk Bye exhibition I’ve taken part in.

Tribute to HM the Queen

‘Tribute to HM the Queen’ is my latest artwork featuring hand stitched text.

The central panel features a hand stitched couched image of our late Queen and the embroidered panel includes a hand sewn aperture and text.

Size 12 x 16 cm. Hand stitched with vintage Sylko thread onto cotton cloth. Assembled onto a Union flag.

Tribute to HM Queen
Tribute to HM Queen
Tribute to HM Queen detail
Detail

The piece was designed shortly after the loss of our Queen and is taking part in the ‘Stitched Tribute’ exhibition at the Knitting and Stitching Show 2022 in Harrogate.

Artwork on exhibition
Artwork on exhibition

(Thank you to textile artist Lesley Wood for taking this photo for me