I'm a big fan of the work of fiber artist elizabeth knight. She creates these wonderful birds and animals out of felted wool, beautifully capturing their poise and lean. And then there is her marvelous embroidery. Again the same subject matter, rendered through traditional embroidery techniques, using the thread to draw the images of the creatures she loves. Her work is so intricate and nostalgic yet also so modern to me. It feels like the work is somehow delicately balancing between two eras, and lucky for me, through a subject matter very near and dear to my heart.
And so I did a little research about her and found myself drawn further into the story and inspirations for her work. "What I love about embroidery is the strangeness of working in a medium that carries profound historical associations. It is easy to read the needlework of New England schoolgirls as a paradigm of domestic suppression, but close attention often reveals an astonishingly inventive energy and self-awareness. In an 1885 quilt, two stuffed chipmunks are sewn onto velvet; in a 1793 sampler, a girl is surrounded by enormous birds and the exclamation: Come, stranger! These makers were moved by animals, plants, dreams, and fears. Nature--inside and out--both fascinates and terrifies me too, and the form, with its largely organic materials, seems particularly well suited to working with its images." Damn. Now I love her work even more!
Thanks for sharing the beautiful work of this artist
Posted by: corina | August 24, 2007 at 10:38 AM