Sampler 1935 - 1942

This is 'Sampler', made in 1837 with needle and thread, by a then fourteen-year-old Balina Vanicorne. The stitching here, it’s not about erasing the hand; it’s about the slow accumulation of marks, the labor of making. Look at how each little cross is like a pixel in a larger image. Up close, they are abstract; from a distance, they make up images of flowers, leaves, and text. I love how the piece is framed by a decorative border, filled with these tiny stitches, creating an almost floral wallpaper effect. The poem in the middle speaks to 'early industry', but for me it's the imperfect geometry, the wabi-sabi of the hand-done, that sings. The palette, soft and muted, feels like a memory. There's a kinship here with the Gee's Bend quilters, those anonymous geniuses who turned necessity into art. Both are about finding beauty and expression in the everyday, using humble materials to create something profound. In both, meaning is discovered through the act of making.