In progress textile portrait. Cotton thread, up-cycled clothing & melted children's crayons.
One winter day, I decided to construct a faux fireplace with shelves (see above). After the handsaw and many frustrations, the work came into being and was magnificent. But it created a new prominent space above the mantel that demanded something important. So I made this portrait of my kids. I made it for beauty. For the triumph of parenting. For the solidity I managed to create in their childhoods, despite the porosity of my own. I made the piece to celebrate the unknowable understandings between siblings and the last bit of innocence in their cusping gazes on a warm spring afternoon, nevermind the world.
I used only hand-stitching and natural fibers (no machines). To achieve the color-blending I used “couching” stitches. Thinking of Alice Neel, and to expose the medium, I let the stitch-work devolve as the composition moved toward the hands, which I drew first with blind contour to loosen the otherwise tightly made piece. To make the background, I melted the children’s old crayons, fusing them to the canvas with a square brush. I tailored the children’s old clothes to scale and stitched them on. For the hair, I needle-felted brushed wool. There is no glue.
