gwen samuels: the first female language

A few years ago I tried my hand at printing images on used dryer sheets after reading about the technique online.  I was intrigued by the idea of using the gossamer material to capture ghost-like images of my daughter’s childhood.  I didn’t have much success with my first attempts, but for a long time I collected used dryer sheets, waiting for the inspiration to try again. I may have found that inspiration in the pictorial stitched garments made by New York native Gwen Samuels.

Shrink To Fit, used dryer sheets, horsehair, photographic images

I work with the unimportant and thrown away; plastic, wire, cut-up felt, tape, used dryer sheets, teabags and other found objects.  I piece and draw with hand-sewn stitches that form scars on the smooth surface that map the making.

Growing Up, transparancies, photographic images, handmade paper

Samuels studied textile designs at Syracuse University and after graduation designed wallpaper before moving to the West Coast in 2001 to make art full time.  She prints images from childhood in repeat patterns on plastic transparencies, dryer sheets and tea bags, hand-stitching them together to create wall hanging garments and quilts that speak to the lessons learned in a girl’s childhood.

Threadbare, photographic images, transparancies, used tea bags

For me, stitches are the first female language.  They connect and create pathways, some meandering, others direct, reflecting varying emotional responses, like when handwriting shifts in response to emotions.  Strings randomly hang from the edges signifying the “work-in-progress” that is life.  The pieces reflect my love of the handmade, mended and discarded.

More about the artist here and here. I think it takes a certain kind of courage -  a willingness to risk -  when you choose to make art with materials that are not meant for art.  So tell me, dear readers, what unusual materials do you incorporate into your work?