Threads and Memory

There is something more intimate about working with embroidery on fabric. I have been painting textiles for many years, but after moving to Canada and settling into a one-bedroom apartment, embroidery on garments felt like the most natural and convincing medium for me. I have always loved creating in geometric abstract forms. I think it is through the shapes and sizes that I construct that I am able to hold and process my thoughts. This piece is a second-hand denim jacket that I worked on. My initial idea was to paint on it, but I remember beginning this during peak winter, when everything outside in Canada felt grey. I would return home and spend time looking out through my windows and balcony door, noticing the grid-like squares of the glass panes. I started with a single square shape on the jacket with running stitches, but my thoughts drifted back to India- its warmth, its light, and the vividness of its surroundings. So I used a yellow thread which I can enhanced in fabric, but all I realized yellow on blue didn't make the jacket brighter. It is exactly like my thoughts to the present—while thinking about sunny mornings in India didn’t completely change the reality of the present, it rather gave me certain threads of my memory to mix into the grey winter. I would rather call this as adjustment to complete new surroundings. Moving between memories of bright, sunny days and the stillness of cold winter mornings, I began to find motifs and shapes that held both experiences. The entire jacket was embroidered primarily with running stitches, along with some appliqué work to bring out boldness and depth.

Bright threads and it's muted tone on blue fabric

Geometric forms and stitches .