Dad & Me

I am interested in using the human element of relationship with family and friends in a way that draws out its complex nature. This embroidery piece is a machine sewed drawing showing the birth of myself and my father holding me for the first time. I made this embroidery piece as a birthday present over his August birthday.  These relationships shape our character and are completely fundamental to the kinds of people we turn in to, to our understanding of ourselves and to our understanding of our place in the world. I find Laura McCafferty work particularly interesting; because her compositions are so unusual and unique that they really subvert the meaning of traditional family scenes  I am interested in the fact that family relationships are in one sense private and self contained, but at the same time they take place within the context of the society and they are shaped by its judgements and values.  So I’m interested in exploring the fine line between what is private and what is public in relationships with family and friends.
  

Laura McCafferty uses textiles, sewing and screen printing to create textured scenes of everyday life.  Her work has a slightly absurd or surreal feeling.  She uses colourful construction with lots of floral prints.  Her work is figurative and she often depicts people engaged in everyday activities.  It is, perhaps, the contrast between her offbeat composition, floral-textured backgrounds, and the mundane nature of the tasks in which her characters are engaged, that lends her work its peculiar atmosphere.  She is particularly interested in the nature of human existence, as understood through the everyday experiences that we can all relate to.

The Old Card Players shows a group of old men playing poker.  She connects to this group because it is her grandfather and his friends but more generally she is making a point here about the importance of friends across the life span.  The image could represent old people – or indeed any people – around the world because their physical attitudes reflect the subtle and complex nature of human social interaction.  The image also has her typical use of mixed techniques, appliqué of floral prints and a slightly off-kilter composition that lends the piece a quirky and homespun air, creating a warm atmosphere with perhaps undercurrents of something more sinister, even perhaps absurd.