tears and letters...

Loving the simplicity of the work of Canadian artist Kate Jackson. I especially love the tissue piece, I won't treat my tears like tissues, in which she hand made and embroidered tissues, installed as a box if tissues with balled up used ones and crisp clean new ones waiting to be spoiled. If only all the objects that wipe our tears and tender noses were made with such beauty and love.


Kate describes the inspiration for this piece here:

Tears and snot are worthy of a handkerchief. Having spent a great deal of time crying recently and not having a hankie to catch the tears, I watched my emotions get taken out with the trash. Tears should be embraced, calmed, sweetened, and soothed. They should fall into something beautiful.

All of Kate' s series have a strong and powerful emotional edge from dealing with the loss of life in war, the news of something in a letter, to the fantasy life we never fulfill. Each work is made with an attentiveness and love of the hand made.


Her letters series is particularly powerful to me as the images she chooses to translate into embroidered drawings have so much emotional weight. I look at these figures and just want to reach out and touch them, comforting them with love or celebrating their news with laughter.


Her casualty series, a series of war figures carefully translated onto the feminine fabric of eyelet creates a powerful contrast to the violence and loss of war with the reality of the families and homes left behind.



Last night I dreamt I was... is a series that explores the fantasy lives we have and though approached with a playfulness and colorful hand in the context of the other work they have another affect - the fear of living our dreams and in the context with her war images the dreams and fantasy's that are lost with the soldiers lives.


I am inspired by her simplicity and emotional depth. You can see more of Kate's work here.