MATTHEW HARRIS

Last weekend I went to a fascinating talk by textile artist, Matthew Harris.  I enjoy hearing artists talk about their work. You learn so much. I first saw his work at the Black Swan Gallery in Frome in 2008.  I love the way he interprets his drawings into cloth and stitch.  He often takes his inspiration from music, not his emotional response to it, but the actual musical scores.

Although it looks as though he has used vintage patterned and coloured fabric pieced together for his work, he has in fact created all the marks on four layers of dust sheet cloth. The cloth has been slashed, cut, brushed, stamped, folded, torn and pierced. The colour is bled, dripped, rubbed and printed into the surface, sometimes from the back so the marks are within the structure as well as on the surface. The stitching is a combination of machine and hand, with the emphasis on simple hand embroidery stitches.

I have photographed some of the cloth samples that Matthew brought along to his illustrated talk.  They don't do his finished pieces justice.  To see more check out his website.