Artist Statement?

The modus operandi for artists has the requirement of an artist statement. Now I have read a lot of artist statements and some are interesting and others I have a hard time understanding. Not that there is anything wrong with the sophisticated explanations, but they are confusing to me as to the pertinence of their art. So after all this research I have tried on a lot of different explanations for my art and tried to be brief, all encompassing, in-depth, insightful, funny, etc., etc., etc.. None of these really gave me an honest story about what I do and why so I experimented more with other variations on this theme and here is what I have come up with that states the who, what, why and how of my artistic endeavors.

My Artist Statement:

I am a self-taught mixed media needlework artist, with a long experience in various types of embroidery, crewel, and cross stitch embroidery, skills passed down from my grandmothers and mother, while others I acquired on my own. Needlework captured my imagination at an early age with its variety of stitches and fibers giving it an almost inexhaustible array of applications and beautiful design possibilities. With the discovery of beads, fibers other than ordinary cotton embroidery floss, and mixed media items that I could use, I soon started coming up with works of my own that employed a variety of these elements. My primary inspiration is the magnificent designs of the famous Faberge eggs. I realized that their quality is what gave them the substance for their longevity and I wanted that same formula for my own work. What makes this work so special to me is that it involves meticulous planning of not only the stitching involved but the placement of all the other elements that make it a beautiful and cohesive whole. That detailed planning and then time exhaustive completion of each project makes the end result more than just rewarding, it is downright magical for me. My future plans are to keep doing the work I enjoy tremendously and make it more interesting and diverse as time goes on, but always, and without fail, to keep it authentically mine.

I understand that there is the general, overall artist statement, but that there are others that will be needed specifically for the actual projects. I believe those will be easier to describe as they are more focused on a particular work or works. So after what seems like hundreds of revisions of the original, I hope this is what is needed for people to understand what I do and why. I believe what is most important for me to stress now is that what I do is truly a labor of love, cultivated over many years, that is still my preoccupation and heartfelt obsession. 

Uniquely Needleart

So here is the latest on Ladybug Lake. The branch itself finally has the blue border around the whole thing and I think makes the design look more cohesive. I've been doing the filament sparkle on the left side of the work as I went but I think I will just plow ahead with finishing the water completely and then go back to adding the filament to it later. Actually, that part seems to go pretty fast. Next will be backstitching the stems to the leaves and then finally, getting the beads on it. I am adding these really sweet white flower beads to the design and have to figure out what color I will use for the center bead. I may use a crystal, again the decision making dilemma seems to be rearing its ugly head. I should check my biorhythm chart's mental status to see how much longer this uncertainty phase will last.

I was thinking while I was stitching on my piece how difficult it would be to replicate this piece exactly if someone tried. I mean, just perfectly matching the way the fabric marker worked with the linen floss in coloring it would be very hard if not downright impossible. I even noticed how the stitched rows also had very slight variations in how the stitches laid and thus produced subtle color differences. Even the way the blended filament fibers laid on top of one another varied from stitch to stitch. So while photographs can easily enough be duplicated as prints, and even clever forgers can duplicate paintings by the masters, reproducing a piece of original needlework art would require a herculean effort that I'm not sure would result in a perfect match. Taking a photo of the work would not reproduce a proper image of the work at all as it could not display the actual textures and reflection of light on the fibers. So a perfect replica, I believe, is not possible of a piece of needlework and thus makes them very unique, and I think that makes them even more valuable and less plentiful than other forms of art.  There could be the possible exception of sculpture to this, as again, capturing the nuances of light and texture is difficult with them as well. However, cloth is not as heavy, does not break when dropped, and is easy to store. How great is that!