Artist Reference for Gender Project

All of the following artists have influenced my exam project.


These stitched portraits by Bernie Leahey are small expressive snapshots of peoples expressions. She has cropped the faces and focussed on the expression of the eyes and mouth. The faces are full of character, Leahey explores the furrows and lines in the face, using dense free machining stitch to build up the textures.


In this image Leahey uses a simpler line to produce a more elegant portrait. The profile of the face is drawn with a single stitched line and loose threads are left falling like strands of hair.


Linda Kempsall combines beautifully dyed fabrics in this small cushion. The colours are uneven, giving a richness and interest to the background, while darker stitch and print adds further surface detail. She has sewn her own label, promoting her website, into the piece.  




All these pieces by Audrey Critchley combine dying, screen printing and machine embrodery. In the Wisley series at the top, she combines the neutral earthy shades with brighter colours of flowers and plants. In all her pieces she has used text within the design. The text is handwritten in all the pieces and adds textures, but is not very easy to read. Her screen prints are all based on her drawings based on photographs that she has taken. Her drawings are careful and precise, which translate well into printed imagery. In the piece based on London landmarks she uses a limited colour pallet of greys, white and black, punctuated with small details in a rusty orange. The text is sometimes white on black and in other places, dark and mid greys are printed on contrasting backgrounds. 



This detail of the Dinner Party by Judy Chicago shows two of the place settings which are part of her triangular dinner table. The table mats are plain colours, but include hand embroderered names of the person whom the place setting is for. The table place is set with a ceramic piece which resemble female genitalia. The table cloth seen below the mats is printed with the signatures of iconic women.


Furoshiki wrapping. Borders and contrasting colours help to give definition and structure to the wrapped objects

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