22" x 22"

The story of "Jungle Sounds"

Our small commuter plane landed on the Caribbean Island of Nevis, at night. The taxi drove us to our villa in the hills and I strained my eyes to see into the dense wall of black surrounding us. Finally I gave in to listening instead of looking. A symphony of insects and birds entered my hearing and it was marvelous. I could hear what wasn't visible. The following morning I awoke to a view of the sun sparkling through dense jungle vegetation, the turquoise blue water beyond and the chattering of monkeys and parrots.

Jungle Sounds began as a beautiful piece of quilting fabric. I cut the fabric at random, played with it on the needlepoint canvas using both sides of the fabric, till the composition looked right. Then I cut some blossoms and let them flow off the canvas. This is the first (and last) piece where I've used glue to collage the pieces to the canvas. Glue was too messy to work with and it felt gimmicky. I prefer the pure form of total hand embroidery. Although I haven't repeated this method, the result is wonderful for this particular piece. It feels and looks like the uninterrupted flow and chatter of the nature sounds that I was hearing day and night.

I stitched with wool and cotton, blending my threads to imitate the colors of the fabric, encouraging the composition to flow together. My stitched sun and the hot sun overhead were reflections of each other, one shining on the canvas and the other, on the Caribbean waters.

This piece is one of my earliest canvas collages. When I was creating this piece, I discovered the fun of cutting, placing and working freely allowing the piece to show me where it wanted to go and what it wanted to say. This is a bit like my first introduction to Nevis, like seeing through the dark by listening.

The sounds of the jungle are still teaching me to use all of my senses creatively and to create with sensitivity.

>Click within the stitchings to see the detail images: