Embroidered Bed Hanging 1935 - 1942

Mildred E. Bent created this embroidered bed hanging, and I imagine her patiently building up each area of the composition, stitch by stitch. The textile shows two trees: one in a vase and another dropping acorns, and a limited palette of natural greens, browns, and reds. The tree trunk swells from bottom to top, created with subtle shading of thread, giving it the sense of volume and mass. You can almost feel the hours spent on this work! I think about how the artist must have felt, pushing the needle through the canvas, and how the image slowly came into being through repetition and accumulation. Textiles like this connect to other forms of making – maybe even painting – through pattern, surface, and rhythm. Each medium asks the artist to slow down and consider the possibilities of a repeated mark. Like artists who influence each other across time, Mildred E. Bent leaves clues for us to pick up, reconfigure, and start conversations of our own.