It's a Fine Line

I had forgotten the amount of patience required to 'paint' the outlines of my hard-edged and graphic style work as opposed to hand-stitching them. The stitching did required a huge amount of patience and concentration and I nearly always pricked my finger and/or thigh whilst sewing into the canvas. My thumb was often red, sore and throbbing by the end of a day spent in my studio. However, these new pieces are demanding a lot more of the 'P' word than my other recent work has.

I decided recently that I wanted the hand-stitching to take a less dominant role in my new work. The decision was made for many reasons, the main ones being the constant desire to evolve and experiment with my work, and so as not to get to the point where my work became too predictable.

For me, the hand-stitching was, and still is, very symbolic - only now on a different level. I still have many ideas and uses for that and other mediums in my work but I have had a strong desire of late to get back in touch with the 'detailed brush'.

I have been looking through a lot of images of my early work, and some of my more recent work, and assessing the differences and similarities, the growth and changes, and the continuing and changing influences.

Just like in life, there is a certain cyclic quality, and each new cycle is entered into with more knowledge and experience than the previous one. As an artist, and as a human being, I am always learning - through art and through life - and once again, I am forced to re-learn the art of patience (with these new works).

I am not a very patient person, as a general rule, except when it comes to my art, it is the one thing I must reserve patience for.