Stop the presses
In attempt to justify starting what will turn out to be a stupidly ridiculous project, I am first trying to finish as many things as I can that fall into that awful “just a step away from being finished” phase. This includes all that unstretched/framed embroidery I’ve done over the past year or so. Starting easy (because I really hate building stretchers, even when it is balsa wood), I pieced and quilted together the panels of the Regulars, those people I see nearly every day on my commute. I made one last panel of the folks who have faces I recognise as familiar, but who I do not see that often.
If I was still doing arty things and thinky thesis doodles I would say something about the fabric’s printed nature theme hinting at the similarities of spotting animals in the wild and birding lifer lists and holy crap would a transit commute lifer list not be so hilarious and probably offensive with its labels?
Or I would say that it was lap blanket size, just the right size to take with me on the commute, so that these people who have helped shape the visual tone of the trip can always be with me even when they’re not. And they can be made uncomfortable by seeing grotesque parodies of their likeness painstakingly embroidered into a blanket that I constantly touch with my hands.
But I am not. I do, however, reflexively process ideas like that since its what I was trained to do. And I am just enough of a jackass to put myself out in taking a picture to illustrate it.
I had a sick-ass birthday at the ruins. It was sunny-ish while we were there and rained on either side. I’ve never been there in the sun before.
I’ve done a bit of embroidery over the past year and a half, but I need to do more. I stitch maybe 30m-1.5h every work day. Depends on the book I am reading and how tired I am. I have fallen asleep over my work, which is a little unsettling, as that is when one finds they have sewn a (calloused) finger to the piece.
I am tasking myself with figuring out the themes inherent in the stitched work I’ve done so far and building/finishing those before working on the project the sunshine keeps asking me to do. Also, all these bastards need to be stretched, framed or quilted—finished, in a word.
Seriously, guy.
Better comics than this about history and things are always found at Kate Beaton’s place, gosh she is great.
I’ve always been fond of my birthdate, it pleased me as a nerdy kid to have a birthday right after Earth day (rhyme!) and when I later found out that Shakespeare was born and died on the day1 it added some class. Two years ago I learned that the day is also St. George’s day, but it wasn’t until very recently I even looked at what he was patron of. Turns out, totally appropriate birth-day saint, since he was also Palestinian. Rock.
Anyhow, as of late I’ve been all embroidery-y and trying to use stitching as just another media, something to draw with and be just another “graphic mark“. I am not a single media person at all, and I’ve been trying to better integrate my stitching into the other work I do and have done. So. I figured, birthdays? Totally a good push to do something about it and what better than a haiographic saint icon to work with as a subject?
There was a lot of image searching to get the brain churning. What bothered me about a lot of the traditional icons was that a) the dragon came from a lake, not a cave guys; 2) always the dragon is being stabbed in the image, which is false advertising as St. George doesn’t kill the dragon right there— he puts this princess’ girdle on it and takes it back to the village to bully them all into being baptised; 3) he was a Roman soldier and part Palestinian, something not often reflected in his face or clothing (which is just how religious arts work traditionally, but still2). So I did a drawing, transferred it to my fabric and got to work.
Overall, it worked out to eight days of stitching on the MAX (I tend to read on the bus legs of the trip, as it is jouncy and hard to work precisely) and a lovely afternoon of painting, 12-15 hours total. Which isn’t bad, especially considering that a chunk of that was technical dead time anyhow.
The end result I’m super happy with, its a step in a good direction, I think. I love stitching and embroidery because it is like painting and sculpting and sewing all together.
All in all, a nice way to ring out my 25th year and bring in the next.
1. According to the Julian calendar.
2. I think this is partially why the knight/dragon thing is so medival and England, because it was painted that way so often, despite the whole thing going down in the late third century.
While slumming around Portland with awesome folks on Sunday after Stumptown we hit Powells, like you do. Resting tired feet in the Pearl room, I found that we were in a section of utter awesomeness, being lots of art history. I am a magpie, easily attracted to certain book spines and while poking through little plate books of Persian miniatures I found a book of Russian icons from the 12th to 15th centuries. I have a fondness for icons, the combination of bold imagery with complex symbolism is fascinating. However, I’m not that up on all the meanings, so some plates, like this one:
make me think of Aarne-Thompson type 312 (Bluebeard). Like, people look in this hole they weren’t supposed to and BAM, head off. Really though, it’s St. John the Baptist and what we’re seeing here is sequential story telling. The head in the hole is his. Snap.
What decided me buying the book was that there is a plate of the best horse drawn ever in it.
Look at this horse. Is it not the best ever? Holy crap you have never seen a better horse.
Anyhow, turns out this wizard is Elijah (still a wizard, frankly), and Jesus is not stealing a baby, that’s his mom’s soul and she’s being escorted in style to heaven. The plate listing was an uncut page so I didn’t even see it till way after I had it home.
Icons, guys. The raddest.