Page 36 - The Enso circle continuing Residents' Exhibition Catalog, Term Five, December 2022

About

the

Artist & MICHELLE TRACHTMAN

the

Work This semester was a period of growth for me. Although I only
completed one piece of work, it made me look deeper into the kind
of work I’ve been doing. Slow stitching has always been meditative
work, but not always with any deeper meaning behind it.

This semester I have come to realize that having deeper meaning
in my work is very important to me and to the viewers of my work. I
want to take my work to another level and become a contemporary
embroidery artist. Using layers and layers of stitch and many
new and different fibers will lead to a new kind of exploration.
“La Chouette“ is a piece that was inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem
“White Owl Flies INto and Out of the Field“, from her book
House of Light.

The piece was made by sewing together many small pieces of
white-on-white fabrics. Then cutting them up and re-sewing them
to make the foundation piece for the embroidery. Working in all
white was a new and interesting challenge. A layer of stitch came
next. The next fabric layers are white cheesecloth with some of the
words (printed on fabric) from the poem embedded into it. Then
there are several more layers of stitching. The owl (la chouette) was
then stitched on another piece of fabric and appliqued to the base.
The last layer is iridescent tulle randomly placed and some more
stitching to give the illusion of snow. Lastly I stitched a sleeve on the
back to put the twig through it, and attached a decorative ribbon to
hang it from.

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