I am honoured and delighted to have had In Another Life and Another Time, Another Place selected for the Broderers exhibition The Art of Embroidery.
The exhibition will be held at Bankside Gallery, Thames Riverside,48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH and runs from 22 – 27 February 2022.
Opening hours Tue 22 – Sat 26 Feb 11:00-18:00 and Sun 27 Feb 11:00-17:00. Due to Covid 19 restrictions please check before traveling.
Free Admission
In Another Life 2021 continues a Grimsby Girl’s world tour with a stopover in Madrid . Size 48.5 x 59 cms • Hand/machine stitch with applied fabrics
In Another life
Born in 1913 she was not able to travel during her lifetime and had very few opportunities in life to pursue her artistic and musical interests. She left school aged 13 and was apprenticed to a tailor. It was a hard life with no recognition of her skill as a seamstress. She loved singing and was a talented contralto. Here in another life, alongside her best friend she travels to Madrid to study music, dance and theatre.
Another Time, Another Place 2021 • Size: 48.5 x 59 cms
Hand/machine stitch/applied fabrics.
Another Time, Another Place
Born in a time when women had no right to vote and many left school at 13 or 14 years old. Ordinary women without opportunities to work after marriage or to travel abroad. Combining images of unknown people from the family album with images from the Alcázar Real in Seville, Spain; symbols of heritage combine with memories to make the composition and bring together an imagined journey to another time and place.
Made in Grimsby • The documenting of a small lifestyle clothing brand called Anywear. 1975 • in an Edwardian shop premises, womenswear was designed & made in Grimsby from cloth that travelled from far and wide. During the lifespan of the business the need to become more commercial had replaced the ‘one off’ designs. By 2002 the designer had had enough of designing other people’s clothes and Anywear closed its doors.
Materials :linen and recycled clothing fabrics, cotton and linen threads
Techniques: hand and machine stitch, appliqué, piecing, drawing
Which Way Now? (below) aka A Self Portrait in Turmoil is perhaps an indication of my frame of mind during lockdown.
size:132 x 59 cms
mixed media
The Girls who made the Suits version 2 (below) is an experiment in texture and pattern
3 new self portraits (below) for the ongoing self portraits now numbering 67. 2 are replacements for portraits that have gone to new homes numbers 26 and 27 and a new one number 67.
Boxing Day with Grandad – iPad drawing – commission for Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre GFHC in a Box project 2020
A Book Before Bedtime (below) was a commission for the Grimsby Fishing heritage Centre – GFHC in a Box project supported by Arts council England
Made in 2020
Size: 54.5 x 40 cms
Materials: Acrylic gouache, pencil crayon, cotton and wool threads on cotton calico
Techniques: Hand embroidery, painting
A domestic scene from the 1950s when every night my Mum would read me a book at bedtime. We would sit on the settee with me ready for bed in my pyjamas. Our 1950s living room had heavy, dark utility furniture, a patterned carpet, patterned cushions, antimacassars on the settee, and faded patterned wallpaper with plaster ducks flying across the wall. Always a handbag, letters to post, and a favourite photo of my older sister on the side board and always a pair of shoes underneath the sideboard. The wireless set (radio) has a particular significance in capturing the atmosphere of the times. It was via the wireless that we would hear the news, both good and bad, of triumph and of loss. On the wall a picture of my Dad, Fred Stone working on the old pontoon on Grimsby docks in the 1950s with his brother, my Uncle Harry.
I am very proud of my Grimsby heritage and the close ties my family had with the Grimsby fishing industry in the 1950s is often reflected in the artwork I make. I was born in 1952 and as a child I spent a lot of time ‘down dock’ with my Dad, a Grimsby fish merchant. ‘Down Dock’ was a community within a community.
The passing on of knowledge has always been an important part of my artistic practice so when the chance to be involved with this project arose I was honoured to be able to take the opportunity to revisit my roots and make a piece of work for the Fishing Heritage Centre Collection and I welcome the chance for my work to reach a new audience through the loans boxes.
This Life Matters (below)
Work size w 190 cms x 35 cms
Portrait sizes 2 x 17 x 21 cms, 2 x 18.5 x 23.5 cms, 3 x 21 x 26 cms
‘This Life Matters’ is a series of 7 small portraits which focus on the inequality spotlighted by the Covid 19 pandemic. Each representative of the global community wears the same white t shirt with a slogan ‘This Life Matters’, a nod to Katherine Hamnett’s ‘Choose Life’ slogan t-shirts of the 1980s, Each has their own word embroidered at their side which indicates their circumstances or mindset: Displaced, disenfranchised, disconsolate, dispossessed, dispirited, disabled, and lastly disappearing. Each life is as important as the next.
A series of new teaching samples (Below) made in 2020
Narrative, Strip Weaving & Portrait – hand stitch & mixed media
Portrait of Anne Morrell (below)
hand stitch 26 x 30 cms
A commissioned work to accompany the article Roots in Two continents by Brinda Gill for Issue 95 (July /August) of Selvedge magazine
Brooklyn: Recollection, Return and Repartee (below)
Techniques: hand stitch, machine stitch, appliqué, painting
Part of a series of work called From Grimsby* to Greenpoint & Beyond this piece Brooklyn: Recollection, Return, and Repartee recounts the artist’s memories of return visit to Brooklyn in March 2019. The viewer is taken on a journey during which flashbacks and glimpses of everyday life, are encapsulated in the ‘mind’s eye’ of the artist; attempting to capture of the essence of a specific New York borough and recalling the brogue of Brooklyn in the form of sights, experiences and written word.
Meandering lines plot our paths and the conversations twist and turn; from small talk on the subway to bantering with tall statues in Banker St, taking in gibberish and graffiti in Greenpoint, a powwow at Prospect Park, books at the Brooklyn public library and the buzz of Brooklyn Museum on the way.
The references in this piece include a homage to the street artist ESPO aka Stephen Powers & artist Deborah Kass
Re-Tellings – a major solo exhibition by Grimsby based artist Sue Stone whose work is inspired by people, place and time. Hand embroidery plays a big part in Sue’s work sometimes mixed with machine stitch and/or paint and there are also some digital prints and new iPad drawings.
A Family’s Life 2 – 2019 – mixed media
The pieces in this exhibition are part of an ongoing series of narratives inspired by memories; both the artist’s own and those of others. Members of the public were invited to take part by sharing memories of themselves and their relationships in the form of anecdotes, and images and Sue has now collected stories from all over the world.
A Family’s Life 3 – 2019 – mixed media
The common link in this particular selection of work is that of family and friendship. Many of the stories focus on relationships between family members; the bonds between siblings and cousins, mothers and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren. But there are also tales of imagined journeys and that illusive dream of a Desert Island.
Detail of They Shared the knitting of the Jumper 2019Fish, Chips and Lanky Twang 2019A Family in China 2019For the Desert Island 2019 – mixed media
A selection of smaller works for Re-Tellings
Podding Peas with Gran
A Visit From Grandma
Remembering Gran
Study for A Family’s Life
Study 2 for a Family’s life
Study 2 for From Grimsby to Greenpoint
The exhibition also provided another outing for the epic chronicle of the artist’s own life story told in a series of self-portraits one for each year of the artist’s life so far. 66 in total . The 3 new self-portraits below made in 2019 bring the installation up to date.
Self Portrait no 66 – of 66 self portraits 2019 – hand and machine stitch – 26 x 30 cms Self Portrait no 65 – 2019 – hand and machine stitch – 26 x 30 cmsSelf Portrait no 64 – 2019 hand and machine stitch
A Series of iPad drawings made for the Re-Tellings Exhibition 2019.
A Special Commission 2019 – Portrait of Jonah, Felix and Reuben
I am delighted that my work will be featured in the January issue of Selvedge magazine.
A detail of my work From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond is part of the article Text-ile Messaging by Doctor Nicola Donovan.
The magazine is due to be published on December 14th. Buy your copy here
If you’d rather see it ‘in the flesh’ then head off to Sleaford for the 62 Group Ctrl/Shift exhibition where it will be shown in the main gallery at the National Centre for Craft & Design from 2 February to 22 April 2019.
Inspired by a visit to Greenpoint, Brooklyn the emphasis in this piece shifts slightly away from people, and towards place and contains a multitude of references from a specific place, New York and a specific time period 21/12/16 to 3/01/17.
A new approach and a move away from control in the design process meant the work evolved and had several incarnations during the making process rather than being pre-planned.
The next 62 Group exhibition ‘Ctrl/Shift’ opens on 21 July 2018 and I am delighted that my work ‘From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond’ has been selected to be shown at MAC, Birmingham.
The exhibition is grouped into four main thematic areas but could equally have been split many other ways. There is also a Project Space in which samples, tools, photos, short films and other materials will shed some light on the making process. We hope that the works will delight, provoke, entertain and educate; and inspire others to explore this most powerful of media, textiles.
The exhibition concept has been developed in partnership with the 62 Group and independent curator Liz Cooper.
The exhibiting artists are:
Imogen Aust, Caroline Bartlett, Heather Belcher, Eszter Bornemisza, Lucy Brown, Penny Burnfield, Nigel Cheney, Daisy Collingridge, Isobel Currie, Flox den Hartog Jager, Catherine Dormor, Dawn Dupree, Caren Garfen, Emily Jo Gibbs, Ann Goddard, Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor, Hannah Lamb, Debbie Lyddon, Sîan Martin, Jane McKeating, Sumi Perera, Shuna Rendel, Vanessa Rolf, and Sue Stone
The Ctrl/Shift Private view is on Saturday 21 July at the MAC and I have attached an invitation, with details, as you are all welcome to come and celebrate the opening with us and to meet some of the artists. Admission is free but booking is essential. Book Here
6th Riga International Textile and Fibre Art Triennial Tradition and Innovation on the theme: Identity!
In 2018 Latvia will celebrate the centenary anniversary of the Republic of Latvia and the Triennial will be part of the festivity cultural programme. I am delighted, and as usual very relieved when I send my artwork abroad, to say that my work I Am Me has arrived in Riga for the 6th Riga International Textile and Fibre Art Triennial Tradition and Innovation on the theme: Identity! I Am Me is one of 85 artworks from 28 countries chosen for the exhibition from 218 applications.
The exhibition opens on 6 June 2018 at 4 p.m at the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall, Riga(Torņa St. 1) and will run until September 9, 2018.
I Am Me – Artist’s Statement
Individuality, distinctiveness, uniqueness form our identity; who or what we are. Visual decoration or types of clothing may suggest class, culture, creed, religion or ethnicity. The outer shell and its various wrappings; skin, clothing, accessories, may alter and transform my appearance as they change.
This work, made up of 12 self-portraits, is inspired by the humankind’s urge to categorise. Whoever you think you see in these images the person portrayed remains the same throughout. It is me and the viewer is asked to form their own opinion of who I really am.
FISHING HERITAGE CENTRE, Alexandra Dock, Grimsby, N E Lincolnshire, DN32 0RA,UK
Tel: 01472 323345
My retrospective mixed media and textiles exhibition opens on 24 March 2018 at 11 am and includes work inspired by personal relationships, life observations and a pride in my Grimsby heritage. Follow the journey from my first ever figurative piece ‘The Wedding’ made in 2006, to my most recent work made in 2018.
A few images below of work included in the exhibition to whet your appetite.
Detail of From Grimsby to Greenpoint and Beyond 2018 – photo by Yeshen Venema
63:63 – 2016
Pop Stone * Family Tree 2016
The Unknown Statistic 2014 – photo by David Ramkalawon
RIP Grimsby St E2 – 2012
Exhibition Dates: 24 March to 15 July 2018
Opening Times: (24 March to 31 March) Tuesday to Friday 10 am – 4 pm (Closed Mondays) Saturday and Sunday 10 am – 4 pm (including bank holidays)
(1 April to 15 July) Tuesday to Sunday 10 am – 5 pm (Closed Mondays)
Bank holiday Mondays open 10 am – 5 pm
Exhibition Opening Saturday 24 March 11am to 1pm Light refreshments available.
Exhibition Walking Tour – Saturday 24 March at 2pm
Join artist Sue Stone in conversation with Alf Ludlam for a walking tour of Sue’s solo mixed media textile exhibition ‘Remember Me?’
The event is free but numbers are limited.
Please book by calling the Fishing Heritage Centre on 01472 323345.
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl 2014 – photo David Ramkalawon
‘From Grimsby to Greenpoint and Beyond’ has been selected for the 62 Group exhibition ‘Ctrl/Shift’ which will open at MAC, Birmingham on 21 July and runs until 9 September. The piece is made up of 9 sections measures 175 x 123 cms when assembled.
Materials :Linen/recycled clothing fabrics,cotton threads, InkTense pencils,acrylic paint
Techniques: Hand and machine stitch.appliqué, piecing, drawing, painting
Details of ‘From Grimsby to Greenpoint & Beyond’ photos by Yeshen Venema
A visit to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York sparked the idea for this work in which the emphasis shifts slightly away from people, and towards place, a specific place, New York and a snapshot of a specific time period 21/12/16 to 3/01/17. Another small shift is in the use of materials, black thread was used abundantly in this piece this is a new departure as was the use of Derwent InkTense pencils to draw and colour the background fabric.
A new approach, an attempt to capture a new energy in the work and a move away from control in the design process meant the work evolved and has had several incarnations during the making process rather than being pre-planned.
There are a multitude of references in this work; to the atmosphere and fast pace of New York City to the areas and places visited and to great beer, coffee and food consumed. Also referenced are a selection of the many street artists in Greenpoint and Bushwick including Faille, a Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller and there’s tribute paid to particular artworks, ‘Jawbone of an Ass’ by Jean-Michel Basquiat and ‘The Mermaid’ a sculpture by Liz Craft at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan.
womanwithafish 