This second pattern mimics my watercolour work, Now We Can Never Know Them. Conceptually that work dealt with the impossibility of processing the loss of human life on a large scale, but attempting to anyway. Each rectangle, rendered row-on-row in purple thread, mourns a soul denied their time on earth in fullness. It is a lamentation on the loss that we can feel but never fully quantify or comprehend.
There is something about the pace of embroidery – the careful consideration of every stitch, the patience employed to ensure a quality outcome – that gives one plenty of time to ruminate on the story of the piece. Making this work felt like a grieving process; one that never truly ends.
