Thirties Playlist

My embroidered works in this series were created during a period of transition, both personally and within the world around me. Returning to work after the Covid shutdown, I found myself navigating a new reality in which students’ needs, my own energy, and the rhythms of daily life had shifted. The consistent, immersive art-making practice I relied on before felt suddenly out of reach. Creativity became unpredictable; artist block felt constant.

During the time I made these, I had also just moved in with my partner. This was my first experience of sharing space without the guarantee of solitude. Much of this work was created with headphones on, listening to the music of my teenage years; the titles borrow their names from the lyrics that stayed with me. Without the isolation I once associated with artistic flow, these pieces became a different kind of refuge: a way to build small pockets of presence and creative space inside a life that was expanding and changing even in the most positive ways.