“Cheap Sheets and Soiled Smalls” is a series of nine hand-embroidered works made on hospital blankets. Created between May 2015 and March 2019, the project emerged from a period of physical vulnerability that became a pivotal moment in my practice — the point at which I allowed myself to speak more openly, honestly, without self-censorship.
Each piece takes the form of a letter or essay, responding to a specific chapter, relationship, or internal reckoning. Themes of love, sex, money, health, addiction, spirituality, ageing, artistic commitment, and the complexity of being a woman run through the work, not as fixed subjects, but as lived experiences that have shaped, unsettled, and informed my understanding of self.
The slow, repetitive labour of hand embroidery became central to the process. Stitch by stitch, the work offered a space for reflection and repair — a quiet, embodied rhythm that allowed both thought and body to settle. In bringing private experience into physical form, I began to understand self-exposure not as risk, but as connection.
The response to this series affirmed that instinct. Viewers and readers shared their own stories in return, revealing how personal vulnerability can open collective space. In this way, “Cheap Sheets and Soiled Smalls” marked the beginning of an ongoing enquiry into fragility, intimacy, and the politics of emotional honesty — one that continues to shape my practice today.
