For me, making art is a vehicle for thinking, a way to access and articulate thought. I don’t find thinking to be a linear or easily grasped process, thoughts and feelings slip away before I can identify them. My practice attempts to capture these deep elusive snatches of thought that arise as I stitch. The process, the image and the thoughts come together in the finished piece. The image comes first, but the process underpins the thoughts and the thoughts influence the image.
Working with paint and hand stitching, integrating opposing techniques to make a single language. Images come to me as I work them directly into cloth. Paint to stain and mark the cloth; dripping, pouring, with overlapping washes and marks to create space. Then, I pick up the cloth and needle and start stitching. The cloth is scrunched in my hands as I build the work slowly, stitch by stitch, in my lap. I feel my way through the stitching to the larger image. The stitching is literal, physical, sculptural
Imagery is mostly drawn from the natural world or elemental forms - matches, knots, fire, smoke. I am drawn to basic processes and the technologically primitive. The images I make are simple, straightforward and direct. The artworks are quiet, introspective, enigmatic.
My work is held in the collections of The British Museum, The Arts Council of England, and Mag collections. I was included in Pushing Paper: Contemporary Drawing from 1970 to Now, a major survey exhibition at The British Museum that toured the UK from 2019 to 2021
Myra Stimson 2025