Pastimes incorporates found needlepoint canvases grafted together to create composite images, or needlepoint collages. Each canvas was acquired second-hand in various states of finish. Some were complete, others partially worked. Many were just the printed canvas which I finished as I saw fit. This way of working has allowed me to provide a new life to discarded items that are out of fashion. Reusing and recycling most of the material (including the tapestry wool) also feels environmentally responsible.  

Pastimes is a collaborative project with unknown collaborators. I deconstruct and reconstruct popular images chosen by others. I connect different styles and eras of work, creating visual elements that bridge canvases and fill gaps. In some cases, the images also spill out of the printed pattern, beyond the picture plane. I add elements, like marginalia on an illuminated manuscript. I have also mashed up traditional pictorial images with the graphics of video games, creating a hybrid that visually compares pastimes from different eras.

We live in a time where anyone can generate impossible images with AI that look believable. I am interested in deconstructing that. My images allow the viewer to see each stitch that makes up and connects the different images and directly correlates stitches and pixels.  Sometimes there are glitches. Some images are instantly recognizable and have a place in our collective experience.

Rococo is a piece that incorporates numerous found needlepoints of Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy (c. 1770) and of floral panels used to upholster chairs. Collaged together, the separate pieces connect through multiple repeated patterns reminiscent of a crazy quilt to create a large, seamless composition. The Blue Boy was a well known and extremely popular image throughout the 20th century. It was mass produced as ceramic figures, decorative plates and framed prints and was also available for hobbyists as paint-by-numbers and needlepoint kits.

Needlepoint was a pastime that was very popular from the Victorian era until the 1980’s, used to create décor, decoration for walls, material used to upholster furniture or make pillows. Colours and images go in and out of fashion, yet ultimately people have put hundreds of hours of work to create the source material for Rococo. They reflect a time when people used their leisure time to make things, and the labour of these unknown hobbyists is honoured by recycling their work into a new format.

Terra Incognita, meaning the unknown land, is a needlepoint that incorporates the elements of the video game Super Mario World with found needlepoint images of old-fashioned figures. The figures, women in long hoop skirts and men wearing tails and frock coats move through this long scene against the backdrop of this particular digital world. This work examines the correlation of the stitch and the pixel, and the similarities in how both are used to create images. In this work the pixel and the stitch are merged into something new that asks the question, “how do we spend our time, and to what purpose?”