Intaglio, paper and machine stitch on paper are my true loves.
Machine stitching on paper has been an important part of my arts practice for the last sixteen years. I still machine stitch and cannot give it up. For some reason, something stirs inside me when I combine these elements.
Machine stitching the selected fragments is like the glue that binds the books that tells the story of my arts practice.
Machine stitching on paper is intrinsic to my practice.
I work in an industrious yet instantaneous manner, composing as I go, intuitively selecting fragments of print, old books, collected papers, paper-cuts, drawings, ink paintings and fabric.
The space around a shape or stitching is very important to me. The simplicity of the compositions allows the materials and textures room to breath.
I love to collect textural things from op-shops or vintage collectable shops often at random and store them away until one day often years later I find a home for it within one of my machine stitched mixed media pieces.
Often the machine stitched collages are just as interesting on the back as they are on the front.
Sometimes I leave the threads uncut to create a sense of movement.
'The answer is blowing in the wind.' Katie Alleva 2007