Before Breakfast: A Merit Badge Inspired by Lynda Barry

I stitched this patch before breakfast this morning. I’m reading Lynda Barry’s What It Is.

Merit Badges at Gallery Hanahou

Here are my three merit badges for the show at Gallery Hanahou:

If I Only Had a Brain

If I Only Had a Heart

If I Only Had Some Guts

Embroidery Show at Gallery Hanahou

The Forget Me-Not embroidery show at Gallery Hanahou in SOHO opens Feb. 6.

Recently Commissioned Merit Badges

When Shelley Savage Caw turned 40, her family decided that my merit badges would be a great way to help her celebrate. I created these two pieces:

Ovaries:

Shelley’s Grey Hair:

for a woman with one of the loveliest heads of salt-and-pepper hair I’ve seen. Thanks to the Savage family for thinking of this one.

In 2006, I was asked to create a hysterectomy merit badge. At the time I couldn’t believe that I had never thought of this one, but it was in fact missing from my series of merit badges. I intend to include every significant event that could be seen as a female rite of passage, and will continue to create images like this. I appreciate being reminded that there are many life events that deserve to be celebrated or commemorated through my work. Here is Hysterectomy, stitched in 2006:

Pablo’s Baby

Here is my latest embroidery, Pablo’s Baby:

This is embroidery #2 in what will be a series of images depicting the babies of some well-known painters.

Newest Merit Badges on Display at the Warneford

Thanks to Carolyn Guillot, I have my first art exhibit in Oxford, albeit very informal. Six of my series of “pressure point” merit badges will be on display at a group show in the Psychiatry Department’s Common Room, Warneford Hospital, through mid-June.

The images are framed in two’s:

Migraine Pain and Frown Lines:

Ovaries and Brain:

Brain (different view) and Intestines:

Menopausal symptoms, such as depression, migraines and IBS, are caused by hormonal changes that interact with the brain and other organs in the body. This is just a representative example, or my “favorites.” I haven’t stitched a TMJ or hypothyroidism patch yet, or a host of other related conditions, but there are so many possibilities. I love browsing the health and beauty web sites, and always look for pamphlets in doctors’ offices to add to my research files. I have way more material than I can stitch, and there are other subjects I’m just as interested in, but I do find medical conditions fascinating.