Layers of Meaning

Thread Paintings by Missy Stevens

Connecticut artist, Missy Stevens, creates thread paintings using punch needle embroidery. This technique allows her deeper texturing of the surfaces than she could achieve with traditional embroidery stitches. Her subject matter tends towards nature inspired whimsey and fantasy. Her finished pieces range from two dimensional framed paintings to small three dimensional sculptures, incorporating beads, wire, wood,and polychromed objects.

A New York Times review wrote of Stevens' work: "Using needle, thread and beads, Missy Stevens makes tiny, tightly knit tapestries of riveting optical and material richness. With jewellike colors, satiny and nubby textures, intricately patterned borders and glass-bead fringes, her works look as if they were made by an inspired medieval artisan. Her images may seem whimsically simple-minded, but as in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, formal ingenuity and heartfelt moods ranging from ecstasy to grief give the work a complex depth that belies the seemingly naïve surface."