Miniature embroideries by Burbank-based artist Michelle Kingdom which she began while in college as a refuge from the art scene focusing on large, conceptual works. Her figurative embroidery was a way for her to express secret thoughts and inner voices while synthesizing images from disparate sources such as memories, photographs, literature, personal mythology, art history and imagination. She describes her work as "about the human experience—how we live our lives, the stories we tell ourselves, the history we choose to pass on or leave behind."
My work explores psychological landscapes, illuminating thoughts left unspoken. I create tiny worlds in thread to capture elusive yet persistent inner voices. Literary snippets, memories, personal mythologies, and art historical references inform the imagery; fused together, these influences explore relationships, domesticity and self-perception. Symbolism and allegory lay bare dynamics of aspiration and limitation, expectation and loss, belonging and alienation, truth and illusion. Decidedly miniature in scale, the scenes are densely embroidered into compressed compositions. While the work acknowledges the luster and lineage inherent in needlework, I use thread as a sketching tool in order to simultaneously honor and undermine this tradition. Beauty parallels melancholy, as conventional stitches acquiesce to the fragile and expressive.
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