poster girls

Largely women

Crisp eating woman has lurched forward in the creative sense.
She and five sisters will hang in our up-coming Largely Women exhibition, alongside Drinking woman, Chocoholic woman, Stereotype woman and Busted zip woman, a motley crew.......hopefully producing Full Impact Women.



Scarlet women is developing I would quite like to only cover some of the body, but then one would be peering down into the chicken wire and chaos.

partials

scarlet woman is coming along [irritating the reds always flood the photo, don't know how to avoid it.
day Dreamer is still waiting for pages for her magazine, and inspiration.
I have emailed the author of Agnes' Jacket to ask if she is willing to share any photos [she said she had hundreds but none in book] to try and jump start me with the text.

tale of 2 ladies

Have really got stuck with how to construct the background to the seated nude. As usual I end up with a soliary female figure and can't integrate her........very symbolic.
Lorina just got on with it. Probably having so little choice of fabrics, so much time and most of all such deep rage provided momentum.
I probably over think it, or maybe underthink it.............I may cut her out to release her from the fabric, she is so stitched and machined now I reckon she will hang together. Then I can move her around more flexibly.
So with my new philosophy of not feeling guilty and beaten down I grabbed some chicken wire and made the figure [about 4' high] and have started willy nilly patching her with scarlet velvets and Zandra Rhodes off cuts, with lots of hand stitching to bind it together, as I did with the rose petals behind the rosey ladies..
It is great fun, but back aching bending over her a times..

Daisy and me

Back from holidays, trying to shunt out to sea after a couple of weeks in harbour.
So in an effort to sort my head out - a verbal think, posted here to remind me what I thunk, and hopefully live up to it. In the manner of Serena.......lots of tennis analogies are herewith banned.
I never have any trouble with ideas, well mostly, but seeing as time is getting on I have to have a bit of a focus.
Textile work is mostly very slow, so it is tempting to be distracted both by Life [Boo] and by other ideas which might be better/more fun etc.
My interests are rooted in Women and I think divide into Text, and 3D.
Sometimes I want to just do landscape texture [which sells well] or start some really big patchwork quilts and shut up!
Maybe later.
I combined text and 3D in Daisy but that is a bit over done maybe, that's why I am fascinated by the stitching on clothes, imprint of the body/thoughts/time......
I have also done a few bits with text , but after seeing Lorina, Agnes and Elizabeth I am overwhelmed - and inspired.
I have started a stitching which i hoped to use as a central icon for a panel of text, but I have got stuck in indecision and lack of confidence [plus I probably still start too soon before I have worked out the design issues]
Last night I stated a large wire figure which i would like to weave like the petals in the Rosy ladies, but that would rule out text.
Should Art use text, shouldn't it be self explanatory.
Art is what it is.

mad hatter

Bought a nice sketch pad somewhere sometime because I Needed it. Today I bought some new black fine pens for same reason.
Suddenly came together in my head this afternoon and started drawing again.
Kept wanting to, but gazed blankly around wondering what? but after a few days holiday i realised - whatever is in front of you - stupid.
So i did, long may it continue. {maybe it has to do with making daily felt hats..............inspiring

more Agnes

Agnes

Homemade, with texts embroidered jacket,
Garn auf Anstaltsleinen, Rückenlänge 36,5cm (Inv.Nr. 743) Institute yarn on linen, back length 36.5 cm (Inv 743)


A jacket, made of coarse gray cloth, as it was used for prison clothes, is embroidered all over with colored yarn. Neck and shoulder are trimmed with brown fabric. The jacket is designed for a petite female body shape.The outside of the sleeve was sewn to the inside of the bodice, so that there is no consistent interior and exterior. . In one, all-over 'passes through the colored yarn and the cloth is on the surface can be clearly seen that they are writing. Is the writing on the sleeves out to read. . Otherwise it is read only on the inside, close to the skin. . It is difficult to identify a starting point and a reading of the text, or even clearly to distinguish between the rows. Again and again, select "I" or "mine" the beginning of a new sentence.. Sun can be read on the left sleeve, "My Jacket", and "with my white socks / stockings to be my 11", or inside the top left: "My dress," center "is my jacket," or bottom right: " I'm not in the "and" I'm in Hubertusburg / ground floor, including something like a signature: "95 AD / AIB, indicating that judges have completed the jacket 1895th "stitches in all linen and clothing are reminders of her life." The many embroidered data confirm this, it is said, for example, on the inside of the left spandrel: "19 Juni 73 b." The few legible words are intriguing. Wer war Agnes Richter? Who was Agnes judge? "Kinder" steht an einer Stelle. "Children" is in one place. Hatte sie Kinder? Did she have children? "Meine Schwester" und "Bruder Freiheit?" "My Sister" and "brother of Freedom?" offenbaren, dass sie Geschwister hatte. reveal that she had siblings. Von "Forschung" und von einer "Köchin" ist die Rede. Retrieved from "research" and a "Chef" is mentioned. . What was important to her? "Cherries" and elsewhere "no cherries, and then the constant references to clothing. Very personal things are here transferred to the second skin. . Nevertheless, Judge Agnes and her story remain hidden in the ceaseless flow of hard to read on and dive yarn. The thread runs through the fabric as Ariadne's thread the labyrinth. In Greek mythology, Ariadne's thread of the rescue from the labyrinth, the guarantor of the survival and return to society. What function will enroll the thread on this jacket?

It is doubtful that the embroidered words refer only to the past. The frequency of identitätsbezeichnenden word "I" and the possessive pronouns suggests a different argument. Gisela Steinlechner indicates language - the written or embroidered word - as a structuring. Add is that the structure-function of the letter of a fundamental nature, ie any structured experience, stop giving, distance permits as well as a self-assurance and localization. The experience relates to the present, and so the repeated choking letter "I" and "My relates" to the presence of the letter which indicates in one place is a readable "you" also to an imagined addressee of the letter. The writing is even on the presence of the maker of this jacket (also referred inside reads: "My jacket is" elsewhere: "1894 I am / I am today) Fraulein." It is opposite to the prison life, who by his humiliating situations, interference with privacy, which leads through the loss of personal belongings, one's own clothes self-denigration and loss of identity. Demonstration. Agnes Judge embroiders the other hand, "I", "I am," "I". She embroiders these words and she wears it on the skin, more to the self-assurance as to the demonstration. Document is the inversion of the inner and outer sides of the jacket, so that the writing remains safe inside. On the outside of the sleeve is the word "asylum doctors." . Remains hidden from the context, it is significant.
The demonstrative use of female handicraft techniques for assurance of his own existence is a strategy that finds particular use in contemporary art. Agnes Richter created a dense textual web, which she dresses. It has the function to show something and make visible to decorate, but also to protect, to ward off the impending disappearance of identity. The jacket by Agnes Richter is extraordinary, not just asylum jacket. . Thus Judge Agnes is a character, retains an identity: She is different, it is peculiar and special. Yet still the number 583 - the number with their clothes for the laundry has been marked - not just stamped, but hand-stitched everywhere apparent on the jacket. . Obviously part of the preservation of the identity in the institution and to accept the stigma of being a number: 583 in Hubertusburg.

Viola Michely, Projektmitarbeiterin zur Ausst. Viola Michely, project assistant for the exh. "Irre ist weiblich" "Astray is female"

Aus: Irre ist weiblich. From: insane female. Künstlerische Interventionen von Frauen in der Psychiatrie um 1900, Ausstellungskatalog Sammlung Prinzhorn, hg. Artistic interventions of women in psychiatry in 1900, exhibition catalog Prinzhorn Collection, ed. von Bettina Brand-Claussen und Viola Michely, Heidelberg 2004, S. 146. by Bettina Brand-Claussen, Viola Michely, Heidelberg 2004, p. 146

Elizabeth's stitched words.

Elizabeth Parker sampler museum no. T.6-1956 (Transcribed by Daniel Milford-Cottam 2008)


As I cannot write I put this down simply and freely as I might speak to a person to whose intimacy and tenderness I can fully intrust myself and who I know will bear with all my weaknesses....

I was born at Ashburnham in the county of Sussex in the year 1813 of poor but pious parents my fathers occupation was a labourer for the Rt Hon the Earl of A my mother kept the Rt Hon

the Countefs of A Charity School and by their ample conduct and great industry were enabeled to render a comfortable living for their family which were eleven in number William Samuel Mary

Edmond Jesse Elizabeth Hannah Jane George Louisa Lois endeavouring to bring us up in the fear and admonition of the lord as far as lay in their power always giving us good advice and wishing us

to do unto others as we would they should do unto us thus our parents pointed out the way in which we were to incounter with this world wishing us at all times to put our trust in god to

Walk in the paths of virtue to bear up under all the trials of this life even till time with us should end. But at the early age of thirteen I left my parents to go and live with Mr and Mrs P to

nurse the children which had I taken my Fathers and Mothers advice I might have remained in peace until this day but like many others not knowing when I was well of in fourteen months I left

them for which my friends greatly blamed me then I went to Fairlight housemaid to Lieut G but there cruel usage soon made me curse my Disobedience to my parents wishing I had taken

there advice and never left the Worthy Family of P but then alas to late they treated me with cruelty too horrible to mention for trying to avoid the wicked design of my master I was thrown

down stairs but I very soon left them and came to my friends but being young and foolish I never told my friends what had happened to me they thinking I had a good place and good

usage because I never told them to the contrary they blamed my temper. Then I went to live with Col P Catsfield kitchenmaid where I was well of but there my memory failed me and my

reason was taken from me but the worthy Lady my Mistress took great care of me and placed me in the care of my parents and sent for Dr W who soon brought me to know that I was

wrong for Coming to me one day and finding me persisting against my Mother for I had forsaken her advice to follow the works of darkness For I acknowledge being guilty of that great sin

of selfdestruction which I certainly should have done had it not been for the words of that worthy Gentleman Dr W. he came to me in the year 1829 he said unto me Elizabeth I understand

you are guilty of saying you shall destroy yourself but never do that for Remember Elizabeth if you do when you come before that great God who is so good to you he will say unto you

Thou hast taken that life that I gave to you Depart from me ye cursed but let me never hear those words pronounced by the O Lord for surely I never felt such impressions of awe striking cold upon my breast as I felt when Dr

W said so to me. But oh with what horror would those words pierce my heart to hear them pronounced by an offended God But my views of things have been for some time very different

from what they were when I first came home I have seen and felt the vanity of childhood and youth And a bove all I have felt the stings of a guilty Conscience for the great Disobedience

to my parents in not taking their advice wherewith the Lord has seen fit to visit me with this affliction but my affliction is a light affliction to what I have deserved but the Lord has

been very merciful to me for he has not cut me of in my sins but he has given me this space for repentance. For blessed be God my frequent schemes for destroying myself were all

most all defeated. But oh the dreadful powerful force of temptation for being much better I went to stay with Mrs Welham she being gone out one day and left me alone soon after

she was gone I thought within myself surely I am one of the most miserable objects that ever the Lord let live surely no one ever had such thoughts as me against the Lord and I arose

from my seat to go into the bedroom and as I was going I thought within myself ah me I will retire into the most remotest part of the wood and there execute my design and that

design was that wilful design of self destruction But the Lord was pleased to stop me in this mad career for seeing the Bible lay upon the shelf I took it down and opened it and the first

place that I found was the fourth chapter of S. Luke where it tells us how our blessed Lord was tempted of Satan I read it and it seemed to give me some relief for now and not till

now have I been convinced of my lost and sinful state not till now have I seen what a miserable condition I have brought myself into by my sins for now do I see myself lost and undone

for ever undone the Lord does take pity of me and help me out of this miserable condition. But the only object I have now in view is that of approaching death I feel assured

that sooner or later I must die and oh but after death I must come to Judgement what can I do to be saved what can I do to be saved from the wrath of that God which my

sins have deserved which way can I turn oh whither must I flee to find the Lord wretch wretch that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death that I have been

seeking what will become of me ah me what will become of me when I come to die and kneel before the Lord my maker oh with what confidence can I approach the mercy

seat of God oh with what confidence can I approach it. And with what words must I chuse to address the Lord my maker pardon mine inquity pardon mine inquity O Lord for

It is Great Oh how great is thy mercy oh thou most merciful Lord for thou knowest even the secret desires of me thine unworthy servant. O Lord I pray the Look down with an

Eye of pity upon me and I pray the turn my wicked Heart Day and night have I Cried unto the Lord to turn my wicked Heart the Lord has heard my prayer the Lord has given

heed to my Complaint. For as long as life extends extends Hopes blest dominion never ends For while the lamp holds on to burn the greatest sinner may return Life is the season

God has given to fly from hell to rise to Heaven the Day of grace flees fast away their is none its rapid course can stay. The Living know that they must die But ah the dead

forgotten lie Their memory and their name is gone They are alike unknowing and unknown. Their hatred and their love is lost. Their envy's buried in the dust By the will of God are

all things done beneath the circuit of the sun Therefore O Lord take pity on me I pray Whenever my thoughts do from the stray And lead me Lord to thy blest fold. That I thy

glory may behold Grant Lord that I soon may behold the not as my Judge to condemn and punish me but as my Father to pity and restore me For I know with the O Lord no

thing is impossible thou can if thou wilt restore my bodily health And set me free from sin and misery For since my earthly physican has said he can do no more for me in the will

I put my trust O blessed Jesus grant that I may never more offend the or provoke the to cast me of in thy displeasure Forgive my sin my folly cure Grant me the help I need

And then although I am mean and poor I shall be rich indeed Lord Jesus have mercy upon me take me O kind shepherd take me a poor wandering sinner to thy fold Thou art Lord

of all things itself death is put under thy feet O Lord save me lest I fall from thee never to rise again O God keep me from all evil thoughts The little hope I feel that I shall obtain

mercy gives a happiness to which none of the pleasures of sin can ever be compared. I never knew anything like happiness till now O that I may but be saved on the day of judge-

ment God be merciful to me a sinner But oh how can I expect mercy who went on in sin until Dr W remind me of my wickedness For with shame I own I returned to thee O

God because I had nowhere else to go How can such repentance as mine be sincere What will become of my soul

Elizabeth P

Sampler
This embroidery, a confession by a young English woman that she is tempted to commit suicide after being assaulted.It is unique in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection in its austerity and poignancy. We describe it as a sampler, which was usually a decorative schoolroom exercise in this period of the 19th century, but the laboriousness of Elizabeth Parker’s sampler reveals much more than just her skill in stitching.
Elizabeth recounts the story of her early life, and draws us in from the start, with the words 'As I cannot write I put this down simply and freely as I might speak to a person to whose intimacy and tenderness I can fully intrust myself.' We read that she was born in 1813 and lived with her parents, a labourer and a charity school teacher, and her ten brothers and sisters until the age of 13.
Her life then changed forever as she left home to enter service as a nurserymaid. She describes what she sees as her own weaknesses and sins, and the trials she had to face from employers who treated her 'with cruelty too horrible to mention', in this deeply personal confession of her temptation to suicide. As the text continues her desperation increases, '..which way can I turn oh whither must I flee to find the Lord wretch wretch that I am …what will become of me ah me what will become of me'.
The poignancy of Elizabeth’s words is heightened by their painstaking depiction in letters formed of tiny cross stitches, in stark red on a plain linen ground, and by her breaking off mid sentence – what will become of my soul – followed by blank space.
In 1998 Nigel Llewellyn of the University of Sussex established Elizabeth Parker's identity, discovering details of her family but not her adult life. Now an American historian, Maureen Daly Goggin, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Arizona State University, has uncovered new information which reveals that Elizabeth's fate was not to die young and alone.
Like her mother, she became a schoolteacher at the Ashburnham charity school, in her home village, and at some point in the 1850s was allowed to move into the Ashburnham almshouses. She lived there until she died, on 10 April 1889, aged 76. Although Elizabeth never married, she raised her sister's daughter, who remained living with her aunt into her twenties. It seems that after such troubled years of young womanhood Elizabeth went on to live a moderately comfortable life, surrounded by family.

Silk and rust

The rusting worked quite well, just with vinegar in a big plastic bag in the sun. The scarlet was particularly acceptable, the silk was gold coloured as in the streak, but for some reason the alchemy turned most of the fabric scarlet, very satisfactory.
I am thinking of stitching in black...........perhaps machining some figures. Always a period of puzzle when the fabrics reveal themselves. I rusted some cotton I had dyed previously and am thinking I might stamp it a bit, but dunno if I will ever work up the courage to then stitch it. Hard to cover up previous niceness.

reader

power

Finally got to see the wonderful "sampler" stitched from 1900 - 1917 by LB, Before that she had lived with her mum and they ran a boarding house together. When she was in her 50s her ma died and she was dumped in the workhouse presumably by her family, for some reason LB didn't inherit anything, instead she was put in the asylum wing and left to rot.
However she was a woman of some force and she started to stitch these long [this one is about 15'] diatribes of denunciation and fury. Presumably she scavenged scraps from the rag pickers in the main wings and was allowed to sit and sew if she caused no trouble.
She poured all her bile into these samplers, there is known to be another of about 12' and there are fragments of more, which have not been found.
The museum researchers have confirmed that the people and places existed but they cannot explain why she is so angry, and as time goes on she does get a bit bizarre, unsurprisingly.
I suspect she may have had aspergers or something along the autistic syndrome, a bit obsessive not socially skilled, which is perhaps why she stayed home with her mum.
She died in the workhouse but her energy certainly still reverberates.
I guess her situation and work express many of the interests I have, I hope I have some of her persistence.

audrey

Yesterday, in spite of the marauding postal strike, the DVD of one of my favourite stitchers was delivered. Altho she is in her 80s Audrey - fine old name, i know two and they are both redoubtable women- stitches ever onwards. She is solid in her self worth and skills, so very bracing to me who lacks both.

She is a figurative and flower fibre artist.......couldn't resist all those Fs. Fibre artist is perhaps preferable to textile artist as it sounds less like curtains, and covers a wider span of materials. Sometimes I say Mixed Media - obviously just "artist" would be preferable.........
Anyway the DVD is 50 glorious mins of her chuntering on about her work. Finding aspects in common with those one admires is always encouraging. The opposite skill of finding differences with those one does not like is not so positive.
She has/had a small house in Greece and is influenced by the Greek Heroes [gods/goddesses] so her figurative work is strong and monumental. She also explores the Greek myths, plus being very interested in the Adam and Eve story.
I see the latter story [it is all the woman and that serpents fault/the original sin] at the root of gender evils I am thrilled to see how she explores the theme in stitch.
She had some stitchings of her mother on the wall, done in the 1920s I guess. tall painted figures that mother stitched in markings of strong straight stitches, with phrases as part of the whole. Auders didn't seem to fully recognise the continuation between her work and her mother's, just saw the use of lettering.
To commemorate her legacy she often includes bits of lace table cloths her ma made in her work, which led AW into part curtains in her scenes etc.
It is all very fascinating.
I am hoping to use the DVD as a bolster to my focus. It showed her working on large pieces, often on a large frame as hand tapestry is done, so I will try taking the cheap and nasty canvas off the cheap frames i buy and cover them with a softish fabric so I can work straight on the piece, rather than faff about afterwards trying to make the finished piece fit a frame.
However she often machine stitches zigzags to make a base of colour before the hand stitching and that can't be done on a frame........well it can, if not too big. Alice K machines huge areas of felt, and just accepts the warping that it causes, but then she is AK. AW mostly hand stitches now, with organzas etc to provide the backing shade, but I find her straight stitch less integrated and the shaping direction of the stitches cruder..........

plans

I like very much Jenny Saville's work. She is a small little person but paints herself as woman mountain. One print I have in the summer house is called Plan. It shows a huge nude with contour lines. Like her I am fascinated by Francis Bacon, unlike her I don't think i can be brave enough.

A series?

This is an example of Lorina Bulwer's work. As the museum where it is kept in Norwich notes -
Lorina Bulwer made this sampler around 1900, whilst resident in the female lunatic ward of Great Yarmouth Workhouse. It measures 12ft by 1ft and takes the form of one long, often confusing, rant. With no punctuation, and entirely in upper case, each word has been carefully hand-stitched onto a patchwork of fabrics by the maker.

In the sampler, Lorina tells the reader stories about her life and her family, including how she feels about being in the workhouse. She is furious at finding herself in there, with few rights and labelled a lunatic.
Magazines, songs [Corinna Corinna ?]all carry the fantasy, the unattainable the dream.

Some suggest that the sampler is the product of an early form of art therapy, although this is unlikely. It is more probable that Lorina was permitted to continue her stitching to keep her occupied. Whilst the true extent of Lorina’s mental illness in unknown, the sampler does tell the reader something about living with the stigma of this disability. -
They have kindly sent me the transcript of this particular piece, it runs to 68 pages.
It seems Lorina and her mother ran a boarding house, but when her mother died Lorina did not for some reason inherit the house or monies but ended up consigned to the Workhouse, for the rest of her life and very angry. It may be that she was somewhat autistic, as the work is obsessive and increasingly incoherent, and it is suspected that many more stitched rants of hers exist, but have not been tracked down as yet.
I would like to do some work in the spirit of Lorina, I certainly have the temperament at times.
recently i sat opposite a large woman in a coffee bar, she was truly enormous and was reading a magazine that in it's turn ranted endlessly about the love lives of size 8 celebrities and wannabees.
It occured to me that the conflict of possibilities in this situation would suit my own obsessions with Big Women and stitching words, and exploring the Female place in the society.........so next Tuesday I am hopefully [train strikes allowing] going to see Lorina's work for myself.
I was talking with P today around the concept. I did make sketches of my large lady, but she offered to send me the top pic of one of her neices to add to the collection.
I mustn't forget that Big women also have fun!!

result

Aha sold it!!!