SciArt September 2023

I’ve been participating in SciArt September for a few years now. Glendon Mellow and Liz Butler came up with some excellent prompts yet again this year, and I shared older work based on the prompts. Below are all 30 days of my posts!

Banner for the Sci Art September art challenge. The banner features a sketch of a mantis shrimp, as an example of art to create during the event. It also features the following text: Hashtag Sci Art September. Month-long art challenge. Following that is the 30-word prompt list, included here: 1 Starry, 2 Battle, 3 Favourite, 4 Cold-Blooded, 5 Strangling, 6 Understory, 7 Indigo, 8 Simian, 9 Heart, 10 Gossamer, 11 Lyrical, 12 Overgrowth, 13 Carmine, 14 Glowing, 15 Bird-like, 16 Ochre, 17 Abstract, 18 Talon, 19 Charcoal, 20 Sweet, 21 Misty, 22 Nocturnal, 23 Adornment, 24 Metallic, 25 Alchemical, 26 Threads, 27 Amethyst, 28 Monumental, 29 Tale, 30 Rebirth. After the list is the following text: Hosted by @FlyingTrilobite and @LizLagomorph. Year 3, September 2023.

An embroidery on ochre linen, there is the outline of a head and outstretched arms. Tiny blue filigree decorates the face and hands and there are light coloured stars on the chest area and around the neck.

Day 1: starry

stars within, stars without (2017) is part of my symptomatology embroidery series. This is a map of the paresthesias (tingling) in my upper body due to ME/CFS, stitched as I experienced them.

Day 2: battle

I began this anatomy embroidery, Bleeding Vessel (2022), during tests to solve menstrual symptoms. Endometrial cancer was found. The fibroids, polyp, & cyst are based on my imaging. A hysterectomy removed the cancer in a short battle.

An embroidery of a uterus stitched in black thread on white linen with texture like a woodcut. The mesometrium spreads like wings, the ovaries are ovals on the mesometrium, and the fimbriae on the ends of the fallopian tubes look like sea anemones. Inside the uterus, the edges of the endometrium are stitched in bright red thread with long and short stitch in a textured leaf pattern. The centre endometrium is filled with the same texture but in burgundy with thinner thread. The edges between the burgundy and the bright red are filled with single strand satin stitch with curlicue edges. There is an apple-sized half circle fibroid on the left upper area of the uterus and a strawberry sized one on the right lower side. Both fibroids are made of red, pink, and cream beads of various sizes. Another strawberry sized section of clear, purple, and red beads is a cyst over the right ovary, and a small section of dark red and purple beads are a polyp inside the endometrium. There are long burgundy strings hanging from the bottom of the endometrium with medium and large red beads on them that extended past the vaginal opening. The initials L. P. are stitched in white on the right side of the image.

An outline of a naked woman is embroidered on linen in the same bone white colour as the linen. She stands legs together, her right hand covering her groin, her left hand, palm up, extended slightly to her side. She looks to the right. Her entire body except for her belly is covered in intricate markings representing different neurological sensations. Her face is a mask of green lines, feathery grey lines cover her shoulders and chest. There is a thick band of intricate burgundy stitching around her waist. Her forearms and hands are covered in thick blue undulant lines. Her right leg has bands of burgundy along the muscles, with small dots around them. Her inner left leg has a thick line of blue running up it, with thin branches spreading towards her outer leg.

Day 3: favourite

This symptomatology embroidery, body map (2016) is a favourite of the ME/CFS community. I spent a few months freehand stitching my various neurological symptoms as I felt them, making my invisible symptoms visible.

Day 4: cold-blooded

Insects are cold-blooded. This excerpt from my videopoem, ossa . ora (2014), features a bee. The piece is an exploration of cabinets of curiosity, a popular scientific display method in the 16th century.

I realized some syllables are missing from the video! It’s supposed to be a haiku:

cuspid-framed bee bed
a dry wind could scatter these
stinging things gone still

You can watch the entire 20 minute videopoem here.

An embroidery on a pale natural linen, there is the pale outline of a woman’s lower legs and feet, heels together, toes apart. From the soles of the feet, thick red/orange lines coil beneath. From the big toes moving upwards, thick blue and off-white lines rise up through the inner calves and branch off at the knees. These lines coil and intertwine in a brain-like shape, and then move back down in wavy lines like a wide skirt around the ankles.

Day 5: strangling

This symptomatology embroidery, neuraesthenia (2017), depicts the sensation of post-exertional malaise (PEM), the hallmark symptom of ME/CFS. PEM feels like an extreme heaviness, as if the energy system of the body is being strangled.

Recently Ed Yong published an excellent piece on PEM. Please read it if you’d like to learn more about this disabling symptom.

Day 6: understory

This anatomy embroidery, she breathed (2018), explores the sensations & physiological process of breathing. Our bronchi are like the roots of trees, quietly transmuting oxygen to carbon dioxide & helping to produce blood cells.

This piece is on the cover of the anthology Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life. I also have an essay and more embroideries in the book. You can preorder it here.

On a pale natural linen, there is a bone white diagram of a vocal apparatus, trachea, and bronchi/lungs. In between the branches of the bronchioles are small words embroidered in cursive in thin burgundy thread. They read: she breathed. Inhaled. exhaled. she knew. that breathing. was beauty. was the way. inside. to outside. when her breath. tightened. she found. ways. to soften. be still. to allow that. in. of the out. breath. to be. the. way through. she found the throughline. somehow. it. also found her. still. and breathing. deeply. each day was. new. each breath. a. different. path. always. through her. and. throughout her. such a. simple. thing, breath. such a journey. through. trees. and. branches. how the body knows. to still. itself. if we learn how. to. listen deeply.

A detail shot of an embroidery of a cell on blue linen. There are reds, purples, whites, and greens in various stitches.

Day 7: indigo

A detail of my SciArt embroidery, cell map (2019), which plays with scientific diagrams as maps of landscapes we can walk through, and labels as poetic text.

Day 8: simian

Hands are one of the main features we share with apes. This is my first ever ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, paresthesia (hand 1) (2016), showing the tingling I had in my hands at the time.

An embroidery on bone white linen. There is the faint outline of a hand, fingers apart. The hand is filled with thick dark blue lines intertwining and crossing over. There are finer thin lines in bone white beneath the thick blue lines. At the wrist, the thick blue lines end in strands of thick thread, hanging over the edge of the linen.

Day 9: heart

This is a still from my video poem, susurrations (2008). The piece is a love poem to my heart, created from the experience of being dangerously anaemic from a colitis flare.

You can watch the 10 minute videopoem here.

Day 10: gossamer

This is a detail of my liver anatomy & symptomatology embroidery, tethered by fluid & ligaments (2023). I used silk organza for the four lobes of the liver so the biliary system could be seen inside them.

A red & purple organza liver on grey linen. The biliary system between the 2 layers is bilious green. A close up of the pear-shaped gallbladder with viscous-looking fine stitching. The text below it reads: This golden ingot.

An embroidery of the venations of the eye stitched in blues, greens, and purples on bone coloured cloth. In a circle outlining the eye is a poem that can be read starting on any word: behind her blue green eyes were fine lace webs so she could see purple mist opening.

Day 11: lyrical

This anatomy embroidery, eye poem (2016), features a short circular lyrical poem that can be read starting from any word.

Day 12: overgrowth

This is a detail of my current anatomy embroidery in progress: a vagus nerve. The way it innervates the gut looks like an overgrowth of branches.

A close up of an embroidery focused on the left side of the abdominal vagus stitched on sulky material over dark green cotton. There are many layers of crossing wavy lines done in bright blue chain stitch.

An embroidery of a uterus stitched in black thread on white linen with texture like a woodcut. Inside the uterus, the edges of the endometrium are stitched in bright red thread with long and short stitch in a textured leaf pattern. The centre endometrium is filled with the same texture but in burgundy with thinner thread. The edges between the burgundy and the bright red are filled with single strand satin stitch with curlicue edges. There is an apple-sized half circle fibroid on the left upper area of the uterus. Lia’s hand is beside the endometrium.

Day 13: carmine

This detail of the endometrial lining in my anatomy & symptomatology embroidery, Bleeding Vessel (2022), uses a very bright red.

Day 14: glowing

This ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, paresthesia (tongue 2) (2018), shows the tingling in my tongue glowing against the black linen.

An embroidery on black linen. There is the outline of an open mouth with the tongue sticking out. The lips are outlined in a dark pink, the tongue in a paler pink, and the teeth in bone white. There are sections outlined on the tongue in thick blue lines. The tip and sides of the tongue are covered in tiny red, orange and white dots. In the center of the tongue there is an hourglass shape made of tiny pink dots. There are taut lines of thin dark blue thread stretched from the tip of the tongue to the sides, from the sides of the tongue to the lips and palate, and from the palate to the tip of the tongue.

A white bookshelf with some science books on it. In front of the books are small plastic display containers and a couple glass jars containing butterflies, bird feathers, a wasp’s nest, and a broken robin’s egg. A fox skull and a red stone with a face carved into it sit between the containers.

Day 15: bird-like

This is a selection of some of the items from the shelves in my studio—my own mini cabinet of curiosities. Such a collection is very magpie-like as I add only what catches my eye.

Day 16: ochre

A detail from my ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, stars within, stars without (2017) stitched on ochre linen.

An embroidery on ochre linen. There is the outline of a head and neck. There are blue filigree lines coming from the sides of the head outline towards the centre of the face. A fine off white line outlines the head and moves down the neck and out along the arms. On the centre chest is a cluster of off-white crosses and a few sparse crosses are around the head and shoulders as well.

An embroidery of the outline of a face in bone coloured thread on bone coloured linen. The forehead, cheeks, jaws, and temples are covered in filigree lines in dark blues, greens, and yellows. There are French knots spaced out along the lips. Lines of beige strands of thread are strung from the knots across the face in a geometric formation.

Day 17: abstract

This ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, paresthesia (face) (2016), looks abstract at first glance, but is a visualization of the tingling I felt on my face at the time.

Day 18: talon

In this ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, push, pull, & tingle (2018), the hand is curled like a talon.

An embroidery on deep purple linen. There is a purple outline of a feminine right hand from the side, palm up, fingers curled slightly inward. There are many tiny white French knots covering the fingertips and light blue, gold, and navy French knots on parts of the palm. There are fine filigree lines connecting many of the French knots and white strands of thread strung from each fingertip to an apex above the hand. There is a starburst floating above the palm in white and light blue.

An embroidery on bone coloured linen of the inside of a human skull looking down from a cut open top done in thin black thread. The textures make it look like the Vesalius woodcut it is based on. In the bottom left corner of the skull there is the tiny silhouette of a woman done in bronze thread.

Day 19: charcoal

This anatomy embroidery, woman in skull (2016), uses crosshatching that looks almost like a charcoal drawing.

Day 20: sweet

This ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, paresthesia (tongue 1) (2016) has French knots that look like tastebuds, but actually represent the tingling I feel in my tongue.

An embroidery on bone-coloured linen. There is a pale outline of an open mouth with a tongue sticking out. The tongue is decorated with slightly darker French knots with curved lines between them. There are long threads extending from the tip of the tongue to lower down on the piece where they cross.

An embroidery on bone white linen. There are many coral-like neurons in the vague shape of a brain embroidered in shades of blue. The bottom section is navy blue and transitions to a lighter blue at the top. The text at the bottom reads: she was tributaries, all electric.

Day 21: misty

This ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, she was tributaries (2016), is my representation of the cognitive dysfunction called brain fog. For me, it feels more like an electrical storm than a fog.

Day 22: nocturnal

Most nocturnal creatures have very large eyes. This is a detail of my anatomy embroidery, eye poem (2016).

A close up of the centre of an embroidery of the venations of the eye stitched in blues, greens, and purples on bone coloured cloth.

A black patch on the sleeve of a red cashmere sweater. An anatomical heart is embroidered in back stitch on the patch in red thread.

Day 23: adornment

My SciArt has crept into my visible mending hobby. I stitched a simple heart embroidery on this patch to cover a hole in this cardigan sleeve.

If you’d like to see more of my visible mending work, I posted about it here.

Day 24: metallic

I used metallic-coated glass beads for the fibroids & blood clots on my symptomatology anatomy embroidery, Bleeding Vessel (2022).

If you would like to read more about this piece, I wrote about it here.

An embroidery of a uterus, including Fallopian tubes and ovaries, stitched in black thread on white linen textured like a woodcut. The photo is taken at an angle to show the textures. Inside the uterus, the endometrium is thickly stitched in bright red and burgundy. There is a large fibroid on the top of the uterus and a smaller fibroid on the right lower side, both beaded in red, pink, and cream beads. A cyst on the right ovary is beaded in clear, purple, and red beads, and a small section of dark red and purple beads is a polyp inside the uterus. Long burgundy strings hang from the bottom of the uterus with red beads on them that extend past the vaginal opening.

Day 25: alchemical

Alchemy was still practised in the 16th century when cabinets of curiosity became popular. Here’s an excerpt from my videopoem, ossa.ora (2015), full of curious objects, especially teeth, with hip joint as a crucible.

If you’re interested in watching the whole 20 minute videopoem it’s here.

Day 26: threads

This ME/CFS symptomatology embroidery, paresthesia (foot) (2016) is heavy with threads, representing the extreme tingling I had in my feet at the time.

An embroidery on bone coloured linen. There is the outline of the sole of a right foot. The toes are textures with light brown French knots. The sole of the foot is textured with the same colour French knots spaced wide apart and attached by bone coloured strings in many layers. Above the foot are the words pace, pacem, peace embroidered in bone thread. Below the foot embroidered in brown thread is a short poem: Forgive me my paces. With a low thrum. With a cradle of easy breath. With one small step. Before another.

An embroidery of an inner ear done in bone white thread on dark purple linen. The centre of the spiral is labeled “nave of vibration”, the body of the inner ear is labeled “plumes of sound”, and the tubes are labeled “windows open.”

Day 27: amethyst

This anatomy embroidery, nave of vibration (2017) is an inner ear stitched on purple cloth. The inner ear also contains crystals called otoliths.

Day 28: monumental

This SciArt embroidery, cell map (2020), takes a diagram of a cell and imagines it as a monumental landscape.

An embroidery of the diagram of a cell on blue linen. the details are in whites, blues, turquoise, burgundy, green, and deep orange. The labels are poetic text instead of scientific terms. From bottom right around to bottom left it reads: Pair of pleases. Chance it some. Chromatic & new to us (carries us some of the way) New to us. Chromatic nets. Please remember. Vacant. Reticent about apparent goals. The centre. Where sometimes we met. Two of us. Sector illustrating the firm approach to pleasure. Caring pleases. New to us. Remember. True newness (pleasure). Sector illustrating sides to where time ran and had pleasure.

A red & purple organza liver embroidery on grey linen. The biliary system between the 2 layers is bilious green with yellow beads inside the small lobe. White beads sit on the narrow end of the top organza. An arched T shape with tight white crisscross stitches separates the lobes and curves over the top. Text stitched in light grey single strands read: What roots grow in us. Branch through our landscapes. In love plexuses. a curvature borne. between what is held & what must be held carefully. fleshy beasts tethered. By fluid and ligaments. Such a gentle embrace. Beneath our skin. Here is the thing I broke & then repaired with brightness. Laid open. The spells it holds. A language spoken. Between boughs & flesh. this golden ingot. This tailed beast. And its viscous song. What a miracle these spaces within us. Are what make us whole. What offertory our bodies. The proper invocation of flesh. Placed on the ground. Hosts on tongues. Fleshy language. Each thing precious in its own decay.

Day 29: tale

My anatomy and symptomatology embroidery, tethered by fluid & ligaments (2023), tells the tale of my ongoing liver & biliary issues.

Day 30: rebirth

This SciArt embroidery, mitosis sampler (2016), shows cell division, a type of rebirth. I’m currently in the process of turning this piece into an embroidery pattern.

An embroidery of a cell dividing into two cells. The colours are muted pastels and each aspect of the cell is done in a different stitch.