Textile Study Group

artists and tutors sharing ideas imagination and skills

You're My Thrill This is the moment when you are so very much in love that you realise that anything is possible, so fish can be rocket-fuelled and zoom upward. When you realise it, love tints your every breath. This piece is about jubilation and the title is a song sung by the wise voiced Joni Mitchell. Colour was used to indicate warmth and joy, even the central inner fish is smiling and crowned. 2008. Closer view

My Funny Valentine This is about Amy Winehouse, the singer. The title evolved as the embroidery progressed and was chosen because it is a beautiful love song. The fish at the top is royal and was worked over a vintage cloth of Buckingham Palace; it is a coelacanth, which is a rare creature thought extinct but, like Ms Winehouse, was a wonderful discovery. People with truly jazz voices are also rare. They are both remarkable and nothing else rivals them for their distinct and beautiful qualities. At the bottom there is a portrait of the singer linked by the scales of the fish which turn into a yellow anteater on top of a crown. Some space invaders arrived and an orange figure pushes up to the palace. Royal fish, singing royalty and regal colour. This piece was made slowly and collaged elements were difficult to combine until I let go of my colour inhibitions. 2007. Closer view

I am a hand embroiderer. This enables me to construct 3D or flat stitched work with a collaged and fluid approach. Often making small separate elements which will be needed later when I’m working intuitively from drawings and collages. The found elements I use are stored similarly, chosen for their associations or abstract qualities, until they need to be included.

I draw from life and use a journal to record my thoughts/ideas. I regard my approach as "sponge-like": soaking up inspiration from events and from music (which I often use as titles for my works) and also my childhood as the son of a marine biologist.

Drawing is an essential part of my making and I tend to compose my pieces after long periods of work on paper but see it as a separate way of getting the ideas out.

Stump work has always been a natural way for me to work, stitches building upward and outward often to be sunk back or flattened into a base cloth. I often stitch around objects and use these casts as the initial forms.

My work evolves and each one can change its form and subject as the hand stitching soaks up fresh influences. My work is labour intensive and the stitching often dense but greatly enjoyable to do. I hope it is jubilant and I seek to retain a sense of ambiguity in order that the viewer may be able to place themselves within the work or devise their own narrative.

I trained at Goldsmiths College of Art and after a gap went onto The Royal College of Art for my Masters Degree. I have worked in education, the fashion industry and in psychiatry since leaving college whilst continuing to make my own work and exhibiting widely.

Further work can be viewed at embroiderystory.blogspot.com

Gavin Fry