We created Arts to Hearts with a mission that it will give women in the arts more chances to be recognized for their accomplishments and promote their cultural and aesthetic contributions. Our goal was to provide an environment where women can interact with one another for support and mentoring, learn new skills and access knowledge, and discover their voices to take on new challenges. Every day, we try to help women artists reach their full potential and get the recognition they deserve.

To keep that in mind, we started this initiative that we will feature artists from our community every week in our Arts to Hearts Feature Article. And we were amazed to see that our community is filled with exceptional artists belonging to different forms of art, Be it muralists, digital artists, textile artists, ceramists etc., from all over the world.

And for this week, we decided to feature 5 Artists using Needle and Stich in their artwork. So to give you a little context; basically, embroidery art is a textile decoration that uses needles and thread. Artists use different techniques like needlepoint, cross-stitch, and many others can be used to accomplish this. In the past, needlework was used to recycle clothes by stitching them together, but today artists utilize it to display their unique creative works of art. As a contemporary art form, embroidery allows artists to express themselves in novel ways.

So keep reading to learn more about the featured artists and their artwork.

1 Deborah Bakos (@she.thread.project)

Deborah Bakos is mixed media painter and installation artist from Vancouver.  She holds a Certificate of Fine Arts/Painting from Emily Carr University and a Bachelor of Education in English/Fine Arts/Media Literacy from Simon Fraser University. Deborah is a former Humanities Educator in English Literature and Social/Media Studies with 14 years of experience in the classroom. She has published curriculum for  University of Victoria Center for Addictions Research and has written about art for the Federation of Canadian Artists Art Avenue Magazine and  The Vancouver Sun Arts and Life Column

Her hand-stitched project is text based.  Each individual piece contains words spoken or written by women about their lived experiences. These expressions are sourced from a wide variety of media including personal conversations, anonymous notes, Instagram posts internet searches, podcasts, literature, song lyrics, tweets and feminist theory. To pay tribute to women who use words well, all of whom deserve to be heard and believed above the din of default-male voices, is the impetus behind her project.

She chose embroidery and textiles because these materials are part of her cultural heritage and her upbringing. Historically deemed “women’s work”, stitching while sharing experiences seems a natural, soft and meditative way to record funny, truthful, believable, insightful, controversial and necessary contributions made by women. This project for her is a reclamation of relegated artistic mediums and voices.

2 Sofia Colucci (@sofiacolucci)

Sofia Coluccia is a Brazilian artist who specializes in needlework and currently resides in Malta. In addition to being an embroidery artist, she works as a freelance photographer and has contributed to various successful projects. Her photographs serve as a source of inspiration for her work. She reinterprets her photos into embroidered artworks using colourful threads and techniques. On Instagram, she has a following of more than 8000 people. Follow her on Instagram right now if you want to be captivated by the work she creates, and you won’t be disappointed.

3 Cayla (@cayla.witt)

Cayla is an artist working from her apartment studio in Shreveport, LA. Cayla’s art practice focuses on embroidery and painting in response to her ever-changing physical, social and emotional landscape. Her work often draws inspiration from the emotional disposition of nature. Creating a textural and ever-changing subject of nature while containing harmonious contrasts of colour

Her works bounce between sadness and excitement. Realism to reflective embroidery and acrylic painting. Constantly pushing her practice forward, Cayla feels most comfortable when her work is in metamorphosis, trying new things and constantly questioning her approach to combining embroidery and painting to establish contrast.

4 Rocio Gomez Sandoval (@pintacosmos)

Rocio Gomez Sandoval is an artist who works with needlework. She currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. She applies her artistic skills to the production of a variety of colourful goods, utilising a wide range of methods. On her Instagram feed, she continues to share updates about her work in order to maintain her followers’ awareness of what she is doing. In addition to this, she also runs a shop on the website Etsy. So, if you like any of her work, you now know where to find her. So what are you waiting for? Go and see her work right now.

5 Lorna (@madebylorna)

Lorna is a contemporary artist who works with embroidery. She creates hand-embroidered abstract wall art that is ideal for homes with little wall space. Her artwork is characterized by its vivid colors and the use of a variety of artistic processes. Her artwork is largely influenced by the rugged terrain of Scotland. Additionally, she maintains a shop on Etsy, so if you enjoy any of her creations and are interested in purchasing them, you already know where to look.

Written By: Rabia Khan.

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