Midnight Prickly Pear
Acrylic and Chainstitch Embroidery on Fresh Water Textile Linen
15” x 20”

Oh prickly pear, who are you?? Sometimes when I am blending colors while chainstitching I become unbelievably lost and confused about where I am in the piece. What color goes where? Am I even in the lines? What was my idea in the first place? This is sometimes an indication that I am definitely on the right track, and the end result will be exciting. Other times it means the end result will be a complete mess. I definitely felt this way while stitching this prickly pear. In this case, I’m actually still a bit confounded at the end of the process. These prickly pears continue to elude me! Whatever the result is, the process is thrilling and terrifying in the nerdiest of ways and I love it. I am learning, and this is the exact purpose of these stitch sketches.

In this piece I’ve added acrylic paint to the beautifully dyed fabric, and left the edges unfinished. Indeed, this makes the finished piece appear more ephemeral, though if treated with care it will last a very very long time!

This is meant to be part of an ongoing series in which I release a small chainstitched wall hanging every Monday. They are sketches of ideas, meditations on concepts, beginnings of paths. Some will turn into bigger pieces, maybe even series, but this is a platform for me to experiment with new ideas.

Also how dreamy is this Fresh Water Textile Linen??

Thanks y’all. :)

xo

Dana