It started in 1985. For my first tree blue bass project in the Church of Persingen, I had three words embroidered on 100 black sports shorts. In clear fresh leafy green. Machine.
But it actually started in 1971. At the time I had a - in my opinion - hip, light blue denim jacket. To make it even more beautiful, I embroidered stripes and dots on it. In bright colors.
No! It already started with the Sunday tablecloth. For breakfast during the holidays. Purple garlands with orange-red flowers. Embroidered by hand by my mother.
Perhaps even earlier: there were antique chairs in our salon that were embroidered with beautiful motifs on the backrest, on the seat, even on the armrests.
Or does it have to do with my education? Monumental Textile Design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Although, I recall, I have worked relatively little with textiles there. It was mainly drawing, cutting and sawing.
My teacher Harry Boom described the essence of the textile arts at the time with these words:
"Textile art is a mentality of working. It is like the photo in the frame on the mantelpiece in your living room. Not the photo, not the frame, not the mantelpiece, not the living room is important, but it is about the interdependence of all that. "
Whatever the case: I like to embroider.
And you don't have to learn to do it.
Bart Drost
Nijmegen, 2019
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