Last Day of 31

Today is my last day of work on 31 Days. I've been stitching wrinkles on linen with cotton embroidery thread for 31 days—although they weren't 31 consecutive days, because I decided not to take the piece with me when I went to visit my mother in Florida.



The idea was to get myself into my studio for 30 days in a row by devising a piece that I would be able to work on every day no matter how little time I had available for art. I "marked" the days by alternating between white and black thread. The number of days expanded to 31 because I wanted to begin and end with white, which necessitated working an odd number of days.



I'm really starting to love stitching wrinkles. They're something we usually don't want, whether on clothing, or on our bodies, or in our plans (an exception being Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, of course). But the more you look at wrinkles, the more interesting and beautiful they are. As I worked on 31 Days, I found myself thinking often about fragility and ephemerality and the passing of time.

It's 16 inches wide and 31 inches long and will be hung very simply, on a dowel rod. In keeping with the idea of fragility, I'm leaving the edges of the linen raw. I hope to have final photos soon, but not this weekend—too many other things to do.

I hope you have a joyful weekend!