At the same time as I was doing the poured paintings, I also experimented with sewing. Using black thread on calico I found that I could create very simple line drawings. These were derived from drawings and photographs that I had made of the area since I had first visited it. I liked the quality of the line of the sewn thread and I created a piece consisting of a series of long strips of silk organdie hanging one behind the other, each with simple line drawings embroidered on the cloth. Here is a photograph of that piece. The organdie strips were free to blow in the air and the images on the fabric were distorted and obscured as a result, in much the same way that memories become distorted and obscured over time.
When I started sewing these images, I used a needle and thread on fabric held in an embroidery hoop, while sitting in a corner of the studio at University. While I was doing this, several of the mature women students in my year group came to watch what I was doing. They were fascinated in what, for them, was the unusual sight of a man sewing. One student was so amazed that she asked if I cooked as well. When I replied that I did, she immediately made a proposal of marriage. The powerful emotional reaction of my fellow students to the sight of me sewing led to my writing a dissertation. as part of my degree course, with the title 'Do Real Men Sew?'. The conclusion was 'yes', but that the idea of masculinity or what is a 'real man' is changing and that the old stereotypes are fast being dismantled.
I wanted to incorporate the sewn images onto the coloured pieces of canvas, but however hard I tried I found this impossible. Their texture and the patterns that were made on the boundaries between the patches of different colours, were intoxicating. For me the effects were similar to those that one gets from producing marbled paper or doing enamelling work. They overwhelmed me. I was inhibited by my lack of confidence in my drawing skills.
When I started sewing these images, I used a needle and thread on fabric held in an embroidery hoop, while sitting in a corner of the studio at University. While I was doing this, several of the mature women students in my year group came to watch what I was doing. They were fascinated in what, for them, was the unusual sight of a man sewing. One student was so amazed that she asked if I cooked as well. When I replied that I did, she immediately made a proposal of marriage. The powerful emotional reaction of my fellow students to the sight of me sewing led to my writing a dissertation. as part of my degree course, with the title 'Do Real Men Sew?'. The conclusion was 'yes', but that the idea of masculinity or what is a 'real man' is changing and that the old stereotypes are fast being dismantled.
I wanted to incorporate the sewn images onto the coloured pieces of canvas, but however hard I tried I found this impossible. Their texture and the patterns that were made on the boundaries between the patches of different colours, were intoxicating. For me the effects were similar to those that one gets from producing marbled paper or doing enamelling work. They overwhelmed me. I was inhibited by my lack of confidence in my drawing skills.