As an analogue form of art making embroidery allows me to engage intimately and physically with the materials, the subject matter, and the rhythm of the labour, adding a tactile and textured dimensionality to the work.
Bird Life
The study of birds is a continuation of my interest in the natural world. For me they represent beauty, renewal and resilience, yet also loss. In this work it is their language/communication strategies that interest me. The richness and complexity of their language becomes apparent through the types of vocalizations associated with each bird. Once abundant, these are fading in many landscapes where habitats have been disturbed or erased.
Birdspeak series, 2024- ongoing
Birdspeak builds on previous work and features a selection of over life sized embroidered birds vocalizing. Accompanying this work is a soundscape composition that includes a selection of birdsong and bird calls. The composition imagines a conversation between different bird species from across the Americas. It modulates between sound and silence, reminding us of their presence while also mourning their potential absence due to environmental factors.
thread on canvas or linen, dimensions, 61cm(w) x 25cm(h) x 2.5 cm(d), overall canvas size 102cm x 76cm.
(l-r) northern cardinal, yellow warbler, yellow warble (detail), carolina wren, winter wren, winter wren (detail).
Composition #1, 2024, soundscape with birds from North, Central and South America, 8 m.
Birdsong series, 2022 (ongoing)
Birdsong is a series of embroideries inspired by the language of birds. They are a visual interpretation of the birdsong from a selection of birds that can be found in Kingston and the surrounding region. They draw on birdsong spectrograms; audio recordings where instead of notes, the songs are displayed as continuous lines based on their frequency at a given time. Used to identify birds by visualizing their songs, they help us to understand the complexity and rhythm of their communication patterns. Each bird ‘note’ is represented by the different patterns in the spectrogram. The richness of their language becomes apparent through the diversity of songs associated with each bird in the species.
embroidery floss on fabric, sizes variable, 35 x 25cm through 75 x25cm
(l-r) , row 1 – eastern kingbird, blue jay, black-capped chickadee
row 2 – eastern winter wren pt. 1 and 2, upland sandpiper
row 3 -northern cardinal male/female duet, eastern towhee , eastern phoebe
row 4 – song sparrow pt.1 and 2, purple finch
Plant Life
Dormancy, 2020 (ongoing)
These embroideries are a selection of winter tree twigs from Ontario trees. I chose to depict the twigs in their dormancy; a state of minimal activity that protects the tree though harsh weather conditions. This suspended state rendered simply in black and white, suggests vulnerability as well as a quiet resilience.
The images are based on drawings from the book, Trees in Canada1.
winter twigs, embroidery floss on fabric, 9 of 15, 40x 50cm
(l-r) black walnut, mockernut hickory, ginko, red horse chestnut, chestnut oak, shagbark hickory, red ash, white ash, red oak
Plant Life: Essence, 2021 (work in progress)
plant volatile organic compounds, embroidery floss on fabric, 15 of 20, each 25×25 cm
(l-r) e-beta ocinene, methyl salicylate, eugenol, cis rose oxide, e-beta ocinene, ionone, ocimenol, pinene, myrcene, caryophyllene, methyl salicylate, limonene, linalool, ethyl2 mothooxybenzote, lilac aldehyde
- Farrar, John Laird, Trees in Canada, (100th anniversary edition. 2017), Fitzhenry & Whiteside. ↩︎