Monthly Archives: October 2017

A Scottish Thistle Embroidery in honor of my mom’s visit to Berlin!

thistle embroidery by Suzanne Forbes closeup Oct 2017My mother was born in Scotland, and we are both wiry Scots thistles, determined and resilient.

Scottish thistle embroidery by Suzanne Forbes Oct 2017As I was making this work, my first fully-scratch embroidery piece in a couple months, I was astonished at how much becoming interdisciplinary has improved my art.

Working in mixed media, textiles and sculpture has given me a confidence and freedom around using color in my paintings I never had before.

And working on all these different types of projects has allowed me a priceless feeling of flexibility and relaxation with my composition.

I was so rigid and so afraid when I first went to Parsons at seventeen. I used a six-zero Rapidograph to draw, and when I was supposed to do collage or sculpture projects I would stubbornly insist on making them figurative and realist.

Abstraction terrified me. It still does!

But  practising disciplines of the decorative arts has given me trust in my own ability to makes shapes and patterns.

My mom watched me working on this and said, “You just sew it on there without any kind of pattern or reference?” I said, “Yup!” Artistic freedom is delicious.Scottish thistle embroidery by Suzanne Forbes Oct 2017

 

 

A portrait of my mom in Berlin!

Pat Ketchum by Suzanne Forbes West Berlin Oct 26 2017My mom came to visit! It was wonderful.

I made this portrait of her at Cafe Bilderbuch in Schöneberg. We were having coffee. We love coffee!  This is the first time I tried black ballpoint on the Canson Toned Gray paper, and I really enjoyed using a ballpoint on that surface.

It’s a heavy paper that feels smooth to the touch, yet accepts a lot of pigment from pastels, which usually need a surface with tooth. I added oil pastel and chalk pastel when we got home.

Pat Ketchum by Suzanne Forbes West Berlin detail Oct 26 2017Cat supervisors were on hand.

Our horrible Morgan and adorable Viviane enjoyed their time with Grandma, who is a Cat Person of the highest order, very much. Morgan hardly even bit her.