The Needlepoint that started it all...

My mother is a painter, a stitcher and a general craft-a-holic. She is currently in a threaded beading phase (not to mention crochet and knitting ... she always has something cooking in that arena).

When I was a small child (three to six years old) there was a three year period where she was working on a very large needle point. It is this piece that I have found influenced my asthetic and design style more than anything I can put my finger on. I remember her working on it and watching her, I remember how excited she was when she finally finished it and had it framed. For years it hung in our dining room, and now it hangs over my parent's bed.

Of course my mother has hugely influenced my art and certainly gave me the arty-crafty bug (even though my dad claims for some reason un-known that "she gets it from me"). But it is this project that has become part of my consciousness and sub-consciousness and turns up over and over in my work whether in direct relation, a color combination or in bits and pieces. Just look how it relates to the current background on this blog.

Is it that it was made by mother and therefore warms my heart? Is it that I watched it being made? Or is it simply that it appeals to me? I'll never know why, but my mom's needlepoint is somehow part of who I am.