my lichen embroideries, all in one place
Although I’ve (mostly) put down my needle and thread, I still wanted to have a place on my site as an archive of my lichen work. For a decade between 2011-2021, it was a motif I returned to again and again.
Lichen have long fascinated me for both their aesthetic and ecological mystery. The patterns that form over rocks make me pause, causing me to look for patterns or signs in their growth. Transforming what I saw in the wild to something I could work on in the home was a form of meditation for me, and one that seemed to resonate with many others who connected to my work.
Until now, my collection of lichen work was disjointed and fragmentary. I never put together a formal collection or thematic show together exploring it in more depth. But if you followed my work, you know it was a constant that weaved its way in pieces throughout my stitches.
Finally, my fans and supporters can see the highlights and evolution of my lichen embroideries 😁
Let’s get started…
My art was featured in Queen Mobs Teahouse in 2015. That interview gives more of a background of my intrigue with these natural formations and their reflections on a grander scale. I created this embroidery for the outlet, titled “Lichen Out of Space,” which imagined a more cosmic and psychedelic form of lichen not seen in nature.
Lichen Out of Space, 2015
One of my earliest interpretations of a real life lichen came after I visited the Devil’s Garden in Arches National Park. I featured it first on my Tumblr account (RIP).
This orange lichen piece, however, was my first lichen embroidery I made in 2011. It’s the only piece I’ve hung onto for myself, and still is my favorite to date. It’s not based on any specific lichen I photographed, but it is based on the original lichen I fell in fascination with in Fruitland, Utah.
orange lichen, 2011
The last lichen piece I did was a collaboration with Madison Audrie, an artist and friend of mine.
This piece was my first and last time playing around with overlaying my lichens over a digital image. Tons of work, but super fun and I’m pretty pleased with the result.
Click through the post below to see the lichen and the embroidery.
This Zion lichen was a test piece for what was almost a collaboration between a tattoo artist I admire. She quit tattooing (sort of) and I quit embroidery (sort of) so it’s kind of OK this never launched off 😅
Click through the post below to see the lichen and the embroidery.
I also played around with putting lichen on home goods, like these napkins below. I did the similar thing on a few other napkin sets, but I’ll have to find the photos of those later.
This piece was just for fun to get my mind off of things. Imagining different colored lichen helps my brain relax.
One of my absolute favorite lichen pieces is this one I stumbled upon in the San Rafael swell. Of all the featured lichen pieces, this one probably took me the longest to stitch.
I later turned this one into a patch that I stitched onto a thrifted jacket.
This piece is another imagined lichen in space, with SETI satellites in the image behind it. This is the only image transfer with lichen I did (surprising to no one but me, probably).
extraterrestrial lichen, 2015
Finally, I wanted to end with my favorite lichen piece, which I featured snippets from for many many marketing materials and email signatures (you might recognize it from my business card 📇). This was a commission for my friend Soarin, who asked for a pink lichen piece. I went ham with all of my pink threads for this one.
pink lichen, 2016