The Exemplary 2025
1st Place, Non-Professional Adaptation

I first viewed Van Gogh’s painting, View of Arles, in an art museum in Munich in September 2023 and fell in love with the piece, bringing home a print. I had recently begun experimenting with abstract embroidery and was inspired by all the lovely shades of blue and the way his brush strokes made me think of embroidery stitches. I wanted to just “play” with the colors using thread!

I have completely enjoyed the entire creative process, from taking the print to the store to matching colors of fabric and threads, deciding on the details of my piece, and experiencing the challenge and the reward of translating a complex subject into thread.

By planning a somewhat abstract, geometric rendering of the basic landscape structures, I made the design more manageable. Then, in the smaller details, I let my stitches spill out and roam. I employed a wide variety of stitches, and often experimented with modifying them from their traditional, neat forms into larger, more loose forms, to capture the spirit of Van Gogh’s artistic hand. When finished, my appreciation of his work was so much deeper.

Materials: DMC threads on colored broadcloth with a lining of cotton muslin