Stitched Selfies: Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors

A new Stitched Selfies series inspired by the long history of artists' self-portraits and the 21st century mania for selfies. The process involves new and old photos, photo transfer paper, Photoshop manipulation, free-hand drawing, and lots of stitching. This is the first in the series: Running with Scissors.

Close-up (click to further enlarge)

One half (the right side) of this self portrait is from an actual selfie - a photo of myself captured with Photo Booth. The image was then converted to grayscale and manipulated in Photoshop and printed onto iron-on transfer paper. Finally, the image was ironed onto a piece of silk fabric. The other half of the portrait (left side) was free drawn directly onto the fabric.

Stitched grayscale 

Stitched free-hand drawing

More in the selfie series is currently under way, using photos that go back in time and explore the nature of memories.

Stitched Selfies: Rotten to the Core

The third in the Stitched Selfies Series, "Rotten to the Core" echoes a refrain I heard frequently whenever I misbehaved as a child (as in, "You are rotten to the core").

In amidst the textile pattern of repeating little girls (me circa 3 years old on a lawn in Georgia) we see the little girl's rotten inner core. We could go into the deep psychological implications of this piece, but let's not. A sense of humor serves as a balm to the most questionable of memories.

As with the other pieces in this Selfies Series, the techniques include digital photo manipulation, collage, iron-on transfer, cloth, and embroidery.

Still haven't quite figured out why I am doing these or what I am going to do with them, but I don't think I'm done yet. Stay tuned.

Stitched Selfies: Jersey Shore

A trio of hopeful optimists posting at the shore

This is the next-to-last piece in the Stitched Selfies series, executed in the tradition of Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and the millions of people with iPhones and time to kill who find the capture and contemplation of their own image more fascinating than anything else the world has on offer.

Click to enlarge

The image is from a snapshot taken at Ship Ahoy beach club in Seabright, New Jersey. At left, cousin Peggy; at right, my annoyingly adorable little sister Susy acting out "I'm a little teapot"; and at center, myself, in a bathing suit I wish I still owned. Materials: photo transfer, cotton, embroidery, vintage Jersey Shore lifeguard patch.

Stitched Selfies: On the Road

"On the Road": photo transfer, hand-embroidery, eco-dyed silk

Here is the last in the Stitched Selfies series for the foreseeable future. This is from an old passport picture from the early 1970s, and my passport number from that era appears along the upper right edge. 

The left half of this piece is based on a photo transfer onto cloth of the original snapshot, reduced to line drawing through the miracle of Photoshop. The right side of the piece is freehand drawing. 

The background for this work is a piece of blue silk, eco-dyed with the leaves of a rose bush.

Stitched Selfies: The Solipsistic Nature of Memory

Click to enlarge

The second in the Stitched Selfies series, with a big title for what is a very simple idea: We are each at the center of our own universe. In The Solipsistic Nature of Memory I am featured in a classic kindergarten photo from the early 1950s. My classmates, long since completely forgotten, are shown here as a blurred horde that serves only to highlight my unique wonderfulness. Throughout childhood I kept expecting an adult in a suit to step forward at some point and declare that, after covertly observing me for a period of time, the powers that be had arrived to acknowledge that I was unique and wonderful, at which point they would whisk me away to a far more fabulous world than the seemingly mediocre one I found myself in. 

The fact that I look vaguely like a young, blond Frida Kahlo in this embroidered rendition is sheerly by happenstance.

As with all works in the Selfie Series, materials include photo transfer, fabric, and cotton thread.

Next up in the series: a trip to the dark side.