Crossings Gallery - Maria Cuneo: Transforming Cloth

As I began to create artwork from old textile scraps and clothing that no longer fit me, friends and family members began to give me their unwanted cloth articles they would otherwise be throwing into the trash as well. Torn T-shirts, stained cloth napkins, and strips of felt from an experiment in puppet-making all became fodder for my projects and I challenged myself to utilize every bit I could. I used embroidery floss to render images of plants and animals, feeling inspired by nature’s delicate beauty which the fast fashion industry and other facets of consumerism threaten to destroy. Pieces of cloth that were texturally unfit for embroidering were reborn as small stuffed animals or woven into large, colorful spirals reminiscent of early American braided rugs. Sacred Hearts, my most intensive work of embroidery, was stitched over a period of months onto an off-white scrap of muslin leftover from a sewing project and offset by some yarn remnants my grandmother found stashed in an attic. I then presented the work in a frame I found discarded on the street. Investing countless hours of repetitive stitching to work closely with these materials helped me feel like I was breathing new life into something previously deemed worthless while also allowing myself space to decompress and tune in to the rewarding sensations of creation. 

Harkening back to the dying arts of hand stitching, embroidery, and allowing nothing to go to waste, I hope these works inspire others to consider alternative paths to the endless and unfulfilling cycle of buying and discarding. It is possible to be satisfied with what we already have, to flex our creative muscles and to stretch our patience and attention through engagement with art forms too often written off as prohibitively laborious, intensive, and slow.