Oh, the card catalogue... How I miss those wonderful treasure troves of information!
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| Robert Louis Stevenson Stitched, 2014. Hand embroidery on card. |
So many moments of discovery in my childhood involved me in the public library, peering into the long wooden drawers, flipping through the neat little cards of of information about everything.
I remember the manual typewriter font. I remember the slightly musty smell. I remember the sense of wonder that there was so much to learn about the world, so many books written about every imaginable subject, so much possibility. And all of it codified!
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| Detail of Robert Louis Stevenson portrait. |
I loved the library. In my small Connecticut town, it was an oasis for smart, nerdy girls like me. I wasn't a sporty kid. I wasn't a popular kid. I was a serious kid, dark and heavy of heart. A reader and a dreamer.
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| WIP. This portrait was surprisingly difficult to stitch. |
My boyfriend brought me this card from his recent visit to the library at the University of South Carolina. I found an image of
Robert Louis Stevenson, a linoleum cut by Catherine Kanner, which I based this tiny stitched embroidery on. And I learned that the Prayers Written at Vailina was composed in Samoa, so I added some crossed fly stitch vines.
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WIP. I'm trying my first shashiko embroidery with a kit I
purchased at Purl Soho. Strange to use a kit. |
A simple piece that makes me happy. I can envision a series of card catalog pieces of imaginary books. Books I wish I wrote. Books I wish were real. I can at least make the cards real.