But is it art?

The boy stands enveloped within the shirt of his father. His and his brother's shirts contained within the billowing boundaries of a shirt of the father and the mother at each end. The plaything discarded on the floor, next to the blanket of warmth, the boy stares away. Enclosed at the boundary of the inner and the outer, this piece symbolises the protection of the family while the young journey from the security of the home, through the vicissitudes of the educational system to the green world that beckons beyond the glass.

Well no………….it is a really wet day and I need to get these shirts dry somehow.

Some contemporary art this week at Ham House has left me interested and baffled in equal measure, and inspires the pretentious piffle at the beginning of this post. Worth a visit, as the house is incredible and the gardens are great to escape into.



and these pieces were interesting to me, the first by Ruth Proctor


the second by Graeme Miller, called Yewtube ( I always like a good pun) - look very closely in the middle of the lens



And then to the lovely Modus embroidery exhibition in Richmond until 16th June. Very small, but some exquisite pieces and worth the trip.


Brenda Fielder


Astonishing layers of blanket stitch didn't get the artist's name.


A very good aspect of this exhibition is the education / information boards in the first room that set the context of the stitching for visitors who don't have any knowledge of embroidery, this history, threads or modern techniques. There are some historical exhibits from the collection of the Embroiderers' Guild, including a very moving and beautifully stitched sampler book from the Second World War, made by Mrs St Osyth Wood.