Show Announcement: "Revelry" at Northampton Center for the Arts

Bonnie Sennott, A Leaf-Sized Space, 2017, pearl cotton and linen, 10 inches by 10 inches

“Revelry” at the Northampton Center for the Arts opens Friday, April 14, with a reception from 5 to 8 pm during the monthly Arts Night Out. My embroidery shown here, A Leaf-Sized Space, is among the artworks by more than 35 local artists in the show. The exhibit is a fundraiser, with half of all sales going to support the center, located at 33 Hawley in Northampton, Massachusetts.

A Leaf-Sized Space is part of a series of negative space embroideries called “Presence/Absence.” For the project, I used found objects—in this case, an oak leaf picked up during a walk—as a starting point for freeform embroidery exploring the beauty of ordinary, lost, or overlooked objects. I surrounded the leaf with a rich mix of embroidery stitches and spots of fall color as a way of celebrating its brief but beautiful appearance in this world. The stitches hold the leaf aloft and give it—or rather, its absence—a second life.

Wrinkle Embroideries

Two wrinkle embroideries that I finished earlier this year are now listed in my Etsy shop. You’ll find them in the Artwork section.

Floating, by Bonnie Sennott, 2020, perle cotton on linen, 10 x 10 inches

Floating, by Bonnie Sennott, 2020, perle cotton on linen, 10 x 10 inches

Wrinkle embroideries are abstract pieces that I begin by purposely wrinkling linen, then stitching along the wrinkle lines with back stitch or running stitch. I then add other colors and other kinds of stitches to the resulting “map” or “armature” of wrinkle lines, gradually building up areas of greater texture and density.

Floating, detail

Floating, detail

Floating, in progress

Floating, in progress

Flame Out, by Bonnie Sennott, 2020, perle cotton on linen, 10 x 10 inches

Flame Out, by Bonnie Sennott, 2020, perle cotton on linen, 10 x 10 inches

Flame Out, detail

Flame Out, detail

Flame Out, in progress

Flame Out, in progress

These pieces are improvisational — I develop the compositions as I go, rather than planning them in sketches beforehand. As a result, the finished pieces are always a bit of a surprise to me.

The orientation shifts often as I work. I turn the piece around and around, studying it from all angles. That’s one reason I like to use a square format — a square lends itself to a change in orientation.

If you’re interested in purchasing a piece, you’ll find these and other abstract embroideries in the Artwork section of my Etsy shop.