After our trip to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts a couple of weekends ago, I can’t help but wish the museum wasn’t three hours south of here. I would love to go more regularly. I always get museum envy after visiting any city — it’s such a luxury to see so many masterworks under one roof.
As the piece begins, I stitch the image with silk thread
Adding definition and texture with stitch variation
Image complete, ready for dye
So I was interested to read on Hyperallergic last weekend that The Art Institute of Chicago has revamped their website and now provides free and unrestricted access to over 44,000 masterpieces from their digital archives. While it may not be quite as good as seeing the work in person, the sophistication of high-resolution images is a darn good substitute, furnishing those of us who live far afield with better access than ever before.
Folded and marked, ready for resist stitching
Resist stitching complete, threads drawn tightly for best results
Reading that article reminded me that several years ago The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York put 400,000 high-resolution images online. Looking further, I discovered The Yale University Art Gallery also offers free downloads of work within their collection, as does The National Gallery of Art and The British Museum. I’m sure many more institutions are jumping onboard as well.
Still wet from the dye process
Dyes and eyedroppers
Dyeing complete, ready to remove resist stitching
I know it’s not quite the same as sitting before the real thing, but it’s pretty remarkable that we can get so close to art virtually, don’t you think? What a gift it is that modern technology allows us to study masterpieces in collections far from home, in incredible detail, from the comfort of our studios.
Unpicking the stitches is a delicate process, especially when doing my best to keep my ripper away from the embroidered image.
The dyed piece unfolded. I may be in a bit of a pickle with this one as the dye took more readily to the embroidered area than it has in the two previous pieces I’ve made with this process. You can only barely see that there is an image hidden in the center. ©2018 Elizabeth Fram
By angling the piece in the light, you can at least see there is something there. Now the detailed work of bringing it out begins. This is going to be a challenge.
While looking into all of the above, I discovered Open Culture, which seems to be a gold mine of free cultural and educational media. You will want to add it to your bookmarks.
Another excellent blog. Thank you. Open Culture is now bookmarked and I look forward to exploring it and others you link to. Regarding the piece you are working on, good luck getting out of the tangle you are in! Reminds me of traffic in and out of Boston!! Speaking of that, consider catching the Dartmouth Coach for your expeditions and then just walking to the museum when you arrive. All the best.
Thanks for the good wishes…I need them! The Dartmouth Coach is a great idea – thanks.
Thanks. Sent the Open Culture link to my kids. Interested to the see the final on this piece…
Me too – this one is a challenge!
I’ll look forward to watching this piece develop. And thanks for another inspiring post.
You’re welcome Margaret. Thanks for reading
Love the dyed piece. Gorgeous. Can definitely see the image in the photo that’s angled into the light. It’s going to be amazing.
Thanks for the positivity Leslie – sometimes you just need to hear it from someone else!
Great links, thank you!
I know it’s not the vision you’re going for, but I really love the white-on-white stitched images, before the dying. I will be most curious to see the results, not just for this piece, but as you hone the techniques for this direction in your work generally. As for the white on white, hmmmm, might have to do some experimenting there myself…
I’m with you India, I like the white on white too – so of course I have ideas running around in the back of my head as to how I can work that angle. So many avenues to explore. If only I could stitch faster…
Amazing process! Can’t wait to see what you do next!
Thanks for following along Donna!
Have fun unstitching!
Thanks for the good wishes. There won’t be any unstitching, rather a lot more stitching over what’s there to flesh it out.