Nico, Nude and Deaf in One Ear (recto and verso) - 2013 - 2014, 84” x 40”, hand embroidery on muslin
Masterful embroiderer Jenny Hart said she was really unhappy while away art school in France, so she dropped out of the program she had enrolled in and got a degree in French instead. Lucky for all of us, Hart continued to draw and thanks to inspiration from her beloved comic books and the legendary line drawings of R. Crumb, found her muse. Embroidery.
Since forming her company, Sublime Stitching, Hart’s work has been featured in publications likeVogue and The New York Times. Her work is privately owned by many collectors, including the estate of the late Elizabeth Taylor, as well as a piece that is part of a permanent display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Hart has even experimented sewing with human hair, an artistic dream that she wanted to make a reality for as long as she can remember. After an exhaustive search through the wig stores of LA (a great story on its own I’m sure), Hart found a wig made exclusively from human hair extensions. Despite this discovery, she ended up stringing her own hair through a piece of leather that would go on to become a piece called “Oh Unicorn”.
Patti Smith Transfigured (detail) - 2014, hand embroidery on cotton
Marianne Faithfull - 2005
In addition to the intoxicating images of Smith, Faithfull and Nico, Hart has also created embroidered versions of French cabaret singer Edith Piaf; La Chingona from SF-based Incredibly Strange Wrestling; Marianne Faithfull, The head of John the Baptist; Iggy Pop; Pink Floyd’s founder Syd Barrett, and many others. If you are handy with a needle and thread, take a look at some of the patterns you can make on your own that Hart created in collaboration with cartoonist, Jim Woordring. Many images of Hart’s work that your eyeballs will dig follow!
Edith Piaf: Piaf - 2002
Syd Barrett - 2003, hand embroidery on satin
La Chingona - 2003
John the Baptist: All the Girls Wept Tears of Pure Love / St. John the Baptist (Jordan Lee) - 2009
Iggy Pop - 2004
Jack and Meg White of The White Stripes - 2003
Dolly Parton
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
NSFW boobs and butts embroidery is strictly adults-only