Feb_19 Fascination with threads and spools . . .

I inherited a cookie tin full of threads that were on wooden spools from my mother. I used them for my various sewing projects. As I did less sewing, I continued to keep this collection because they felt precious and marked a period of time in my mother’s life. They appear in some of my earliest paintings as shown here. The spools had to be sliced in half in order to stay on the canvas and give the illusion of extending into the canvas. Here are 3 of these paintings.

Threads are also a fascination of mine. I did inherit the threads that were on the various spools. When I started painting, I found myself being drawn to fabric stores and coming home to enthusiastically unravel the fabric so I could affix them to my paintings. Something about the various textures, colours and thicknesses of the threads sparks my imagination. These threads appear in many of my paintings, from the earliest ones to my most recent ones. Here is a section of them.

I find the process of unravelling to be relaxing and I often do it while watching television . . .

The most challenging part is finding a way to keep the threads from tangling. Here is my latest method . . .

I don’t know if this fascination will continue and threads and/or spools will keep appearing on my canvases. But for now, they’ve become favorites of mine and feel integrated into my painting style.