14" x 16½"
The story of "Thanks For The Memories"
This story takes place during a two day shopping excursion in Sarasota, Florida.
On day one, I didn't see anything that I wanted to buy. However, as I was about to leave the shop, I saw a painted canvas pinned high on a wall. "Nice," I thought, "but I don't need it." "Need" doesn't have anything to do with it. I returned to our apartment and thought about that canvas for the next twenty-four hours.
I returned to the shop the next day knowing that I would buy the canvas. Coincidently, my Toronto stitching friend, Shirli Ann was there and it was a wonderful reunion. I showed her "my" canvas and then asked the shop manager, Charles, to please take the canvas down so I could look at it more carefully. This was procrastination since I knew that I would buy it. Charles carefully removed the pins from the wall while saying, "Are you sure that you know how to stitch this?" "Shirli Ann, please tell him that I know how to stitch!" I pleaded. Shirli Ann defended my ability and this purchase has become a classic "Charles" story. The poor man gets a constant reminder of his comment at least twice every winter when we revisit the shop. Now he says. "Are you sure that YOU stitched it?"
A question that I'm asked frequently is, "Why would you stitch other people's canvases when you can do your own?"
Stitching a painted canvas, for me, is about creating my interpretation of the canvas. A comparison would be, when I go to hear the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play Wagner's Tenhauser conducted by Peter Bergamin, I know that Bergamin is interpreting the work of Wagner. That doesn't diminish the talent of the conductor. The composer and the conductor rely on each other for the creation and then the presentation of the music. (My friend, Maestro Peter Bergamin, is a world-renowned conductor who financed his musical education while managing the intricacies of the Bridal office in my shop.)
The canvas that I purchased was so beautifully painted and the colors so vibrant, that I decided to match my threads as close as possible to the painted colors. I used a lot of blending and shading to stitch the sky, ground and border. The animals are stitched with a variety of stitches chosen to depict their authentic look. The rabbit has a fluffy tail thanks to the insistence of my friend Lenny. (Needlepoint by committee). I used all types of cotton floss, DMC, Anchor and Sampler overdyes to get the colors to match the painting. (By the way, I've been trying to buy another canvas by this talented artist. If anyone out there knows how to contact the artist, I would love to have the information.)
The two little dogs sitting on the lower right side of the ground are a phototransfer of my former pets, Benji and Gem. The wonderful memories of the antics of Benji and Gem are immortalized on this canvas which will one day belong to my youngest daughter, Lisa.
>Click within the stitchings to see the detail images: