This very informative lecture, given my Mr X stitch himself, was the most enjoyable lecture I have attended so far. Chalmers explained that when he originally started cross stitching there weren't any decent or modern patterns in the market, so he started designing his own patterns for the market. I visited his on line shop and I found the patterns to be a lot more interesting than any other I'd seen. Truth be told I had never considered contemporary cross stitching, so hearing how enthusiastic Chalmers was when he spoke about all these different companies and artists I'd never heard of before really started to get me interested in different types of embroidery.
I took note of as many artists Chalmers spoke about so that I could research them further in my own time. All of these artists either focus on creating pieces of art work or novelty items, which aim to be aesthetically pleasing or amusing with no physical purpose.
The artist Severia really caught my eye in Chalmers lecture because she stitches with alternative materials and objects such as cross stitching into domestic irons, cars and garden spades. I thought that this artist's work was really unique because of the range of materials she uses as the bases for her embroidery. Seeing her work has really enabled me to consider using materials that wouldn't be associated with stitch.
We were also shown the work of Lord Libidan, who creates 3D pieces by using cross stitch and a plastic surface that can be stitched together. The plastic surface can hold its own weight, enabling him to create structures that represent characters out of the film Transformers. These objects that he has created are especially unique because you can transform them from being a lorry or a car to being a robot.
I found the idea of the work by Crapestry to be really interesting because it gives another meaning to the original piece of work. The idea is to take old cushion covers and other pieces of embroidered pieced and stitch into them yourself. The work that we were shown included an original image of a cat and a dog watching TV but the artist changed it so that the pets were watching porn, and others were of animals that had been altered so that they were smoking.
Another artist who does something similar with their work is Stacey Page who takes old photographs and alters them with the purpose if giving them a new story. I really like the comparison between old and new with this type of art because the artists are using old bases and creating a new surface on top. I think this is a really interesting form of recycling art.
The artist Severia really caught my eye in Chalmers lecture because she stitches with alternative materials and objects such as cross stitching into domestic irons, cars and garden spades. I thought that this artist's work was really unique because of the range of materials she uses as the bases for her embroidery. Seeing her work has really enabled me to consider using materials that wouldn't be associated with stitch.
We were also shown the work of Lord Libidan, who creates 3D pieces by using cross stitch and a plastic surface that can be stitched together. The plastic surface can hold its own weight, enabling him to create structures that represent characters out of the film Transformers. These objects that he has created are especially unique because you can transform them from being a lorry or a car to being a robot.
I found the idea of the work by Crapestry to be really interesting because it gives another meaning to the original piece of work. The idea is to take old cushion covers and other pieces of embroidered pieced and stitch into them yourself. The work that we were shown included an original image of a cat and a dog watching TV but the artist changed it so that the pets were watching porn, and others were of animals that had been altered so that they were smoking.
Another artist who does something similar with their work is Stacey Page who takes old photographs and alters them with the purpose if giving them a new story. I really like the comparison between old and new with this type of art because the artists are using old bases and creating a new surface on top. I think this is a really interesting form of recycling art.
