The following quilts are approx. 8 feet long. I used bleach to draw the main figure and machine embroidery to stitch the swirling soldiers into the quilts.
During my final show at school, along with the quilts, I showed 2 stuffed soldiers which were almost 7 feet tall. They were meant to resemble both pillows and punching bags. The drawings of the soldiers were done with machine embroidery. (i do machine embroidery with a standard sewing machine and push the fabric by hand to guide the stitching where i want it to go.)
Immediately following school I was a participant at the 2006 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. I made some smaller work to display along with my thesis work. I had become so saddened by the reasoning behind my work that I began to dream of a world using soldiers and weaponry as tools of love. I wanted soldiers to love and make love. I wanted their guns to blow bubbles, grow flowers and give out love. I became obsessed with the idea
For the following year I was very much in love with flourescents and bright colours. I made this work to show at Harbourfront Centre. It was meant to be a smaller version of my 7 feet tall soldiers. These guys are only about 12 inches tall.
I wanted to see how dedicated I could be to the repetition of machine embroidery. The following work is 36" x 36" and is entirely machine embroidered. I had been watching the Beatles Yellow Submarine and was enthralled with the use of flat colour filling in a black outline. I wanted to try and use that in my work.
Eventually I grew completely disenchanted with my dream and began to realize that soldiers in war had a better chance of dying than filling the world with peace and love. I went on to create my Eyelet Casualties Series.
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