Portrait of a Grimsby Girl 2014
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl 76 cm x 55 cm + Book 29 cm x 26 cm
Statement about work 1: 2014 marks the centenary of her birth. The usual ups and downs of life preceded the diagnosis, in 1978 of a rare form of Leukaemia. In 1979 her family watched helplessly as her life ebbed away. As one life ends another begins. 3 weeks later her grandson, Sam was born.
Materials: cotton/ linen fabric, cotton threads, fabric and acrylic paints, bondaweb
Techniques: hand and machine embroidery, painting, bonding
Photo credit: David Ramkalawon
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl Book 2014
The Unknown Statistic
The Unknown Statistic 100 cm x 70 cm
Statement about work: They stood in the doorway and watched. He whistled as he walked away. He didn’t look back and they never saw him again. The number of children left fatherless by WW1 was not accurately recorded either nationally or locally. Memories fade. Their young lives went on but were changed forever.
Materials: cotton/ linen fabric, cotton threads, fabric and acrylic paints
Techniques: hand and machine embroidery, painting
Photo credit: David Ramkalawon
The girls go to London Town 2014
Double Take 2014
Shopping trip 2014
Murals Day Out 2014
The Girls who made the Suits 2014
3 Girls and a Fence 2014
Family Gathering 2014
The Boys Go to London Town
mixed media • 122 x 92 cms
A Group of small studies made in 2013
Study for East End Girls 2012
Auntie Madge 2012
Study for Double Take 2012
Study for Some Things 2012
Study for Tea Party 2012
hand stitch portrait
Do You Come Here Often? 2013
As usual my subject matter comes from close to home and I have combined three images. My Mum, my Dad and a church window are the component parts of the composition.
The piece is about my parents early courtship.
He was always a snappy dresser who was a Fish Merchant when Grimsby was known as the ‘Klondyke of the East Coast’. Working his way up he was first a barrow boy and then a filleter before starting his own business. She was a talented tailoress with a rich, and vibrant contralto voice and from a staunch Methodist family.They often met at Flottergate Methodist Church where she was in the choir.
My sister and I have a theory that he only joined the Men’s society so that he could court my Mum. They were married in 1939 when she was 25 years old.
The Universal Child 2013
Statement for ‘The Universal Child’ and ’I listen to the radio and hear his voice’
Children are killed, maimed, physically and mentally scarred every day, caught up in the crossfire of senseless religious and sectarian wars
Each stitch on the recycled, linen fabric becomes a symbol of remembrance for the hundreds of thousands of lives lost. The cross-stitches used to represent the kisses those children will never receive.
On radio 4 the news is bad, the words of both bereaved mothers, and victims of horrific attacks are heartbreaking. Those words are depicted by machine embroidered graffiti.
Images of Fred, ‘The Universal Child’ and Harry,’I Listen to the Radio and Hear his Voice’ turn into a device to connect past with present and the materials used to portray them form the common link. The two boys are children of the first world war, the so-called war to end war. Almost 100 years on there is still no end in sight .
I Listen to the Radio and Hear his Voice 2013
Grimsby Girl’s World Tour Stopover Tokyo 2013
A girl from Grimsby, a tuna from Tsukiji, a holiday in Harajuku combine. Travel through ethereal layers of time and place to Takeshita Street. The artist’s mother was born on 6th December 1914 in a fishing port in the UK. 99 years later this Grimsby girl meets modern day Tokyo.
Linen/cotton fabric, cotton threads, fabric paint. Hand and machine stitch, painting. 59 x 145 cms
A Tea Party in Tokyo 2013
Grimsby, UK, once the world’s busiest fishing port, is the artist’s hometown. East, west, past and present, connect when three sisters from 1920s Grimsby have a tea party in Tokyo. The youngest of the three, Irene, the artist’s mother-in-law was an avid tea drinker all her life.
Linen/cotton fabric, cotton threads, fabric paint.Hand and machine stitch, painting. 60 x 115 cms
RIP Grimsby St E2 version 2 2013
Retrospective • an Archive of Work 2017
Retrospective • an Archive of work 2016
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2015
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2013/14
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2011/12
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2009/10
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2007/8
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2003 to 2006
Woman With a Fish, AKA Sue Stone, is a totally unique and original Grimsby voice. An artist and maker who works in hand stitch, machine embroidery and mixed media to juxtapose often gritty modern urban scenarios and graffiti art with between the wars, homely, nostalgia. The medium of thread making the contrast both jarring and engaging. It’s also funny, but in an odd sort of a way, as opposed to rolling round the floor in err… stitches. The quirky humour coming from a meme sewn into all of Stone’s work, which is the fact that at least one of her subjects is always carrying a fish. An all to common occurrence in this part of the world.
Big fish, little fish… hey we forgot the cardboard box again. 
womanwithafish 