We recently connected with Missy Stevens and have shared our conversation below.

Missy, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

1990 was a banner year for me. I started making thread paintings (embroidered pictures) with a punch needle and also started learning about and practicing shamanism. My artwork up till then had been woven pictures, and the images weren’t flowing for me. When I learned about shamanic journeying I had an immense source of imagery. Not only were there images but they were deeply imbued with meaning and feeling which helped inform the design and colors.

Each journey is launched by a question and everything experienced in that journey is part of the answer. Often the journeys were metaphorical. Stitching some image I extracted from the journey gave me time to ponder the answer. Some journeys were joyful and making a thread painting from that allowed me to steep in the joy. If there was sadness it was healing to make beauty from it.

Stitching for me is deeply intuitive. I make a line drawing to compose the piece and then start stitching whatever I know about that piece. Usually it’s simply a color. “This is meant to be blue, this red”. And it evolves from there. This process of making something actual from an inner sense is magical and deeply fulfilling.

Making thread paintings was the core of my work as an artist for many years. And I consider this body of work to be the most meaningful (so far) project I’ve worked on. Eventually I had pain from the repetitive nature of the technique. As I explored new ways to make images with thread and fabric, my favorite materials, I also was able to process the grief of needing to change my method of stitching and the pain I was experiencing in my body. All my past experience translating a deeply felt journey to a visual image stood by me as I moved through this difficult parting from a beloved technique.

Life’s path has taken me away from working only with thread and fabric. Now I also work with clay, and in so many ways that is an entirely different experience. And I’m making my way back to fabric, my old friend.

Missy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a studio artist who makes one of a kind pieces using either thread and fabric or clay. I call my stitched pieces thread paintings. Their origin is from the deep well of desiring to make an image that comes alive, means something and is beautiful. Many artists dip into this well whatever their media. My work is known for its richness of color. I’m inspired by the spirits of nature and much of my work references the garden and animals. All this, the materials, the color, the imagery give me joy and I hope that whoever sees my work gets a hit of that.

I’ve stitched since I was a child. In high school I was lucky enough to have an amazing art teacher and was encouraged to create. Later I chose to merge art and fabric and studied at BUs Program in Artisanry in the textiles studio, Again I found myself in the hands of a great teacher who opened my eyes to a wide realm of self expression using fiber as my material with a focus on weaving and printing.

While I was there a visiting lecturer who taught at a needlework school in England shared slides of her students’ work and I remembered how much I loved stitching. I started exploring the vast category of mark making with thread that we call stitching or embroidery. Those pieces were the first that I designed (I had loved embroidery kits as a child) and were densely stitched. That love of density carried through when I happened upon some samples of punch needle embroidery using sewing thread. I was smitten with the surface of hundreds of tiny loops of thread. Picture a hooked rug, but instead of loops of fabric there are loops of sewing thread. The loop surface amplifies the richness of the color as each loop has highlights and shadows of its color. This technique allowed me to express anything my heart imagined.

Beauty and joy are essential elements of my work. They also feel so necessary in this time we live in. Even the difficult , dark days can be cradled in beauty and the lighter days are cause for celebration.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It’s such a privilege to conceive of a piece of art and see it all the way through until it is an actual, physical object. The process is a dialogue with the piece as it comes into being. Very quickly pieces have their own sense of what they are and should be. As a studio artist I don’t have to adjust my concept to another person’s wishes. The dialogue is between me and the piece I’m working on. Often my original concept is quite changed when it’s complete, and I hope better for that.

Of course, if the material I’m working with is clay there can be many more unexpected alterations, and they aren’t always easy to accept! A piece that was going along nicely can change drastically in a short time, and not always for the better. Working with clay teaches me to be flexible and persistent.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020 I experienced a traumatic loss. It rocked my world in a big way. Afterwards I couldn’t work in my fiber studio because being there had gotten associated with the trauma in my mind. And then Covid came along and I was isolated from the healing company of friends and family. I was really floundering. As I recovered I found that I could work with clay for a while each day. I like to make clay whistles and so in 2020, as I was experiencing grief, I was also making a whistle every day or two. Owls! All owls, all decorated with sgraffito, all different yet a family. It was a form I’d made many times and so it came easily and I needed that ease to help me through this time. They were not large, they fit easily in my hand and as such were also manageable to conceive of and complete.
One of the things I enjoy about working with clay that is different from my fiber art is that I can just start making something without thinking too much about what it will become. For whistle making there are basic criteria, but after that it can hatch out in my hands as I work on it. The magic of seeing and encouraging something into being, putting eyes on it and seeing it look back at me, and getting it to whistle lifted my heart and helped me get back on my feet.
What have I learned from this passage of my life? I am a maker and I do better if I keep at it, I feel more whole and purposeful. But there are many ways to make things and some are just more suited to what I’m experiencing in my life at any time. I’m so grateful to have had clay to fall back on when I couldn’t muster the energy for thread. Grateful also that I could accept the hiatus from thread and fabric as I regrouped. It’s important to be kind to yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.missystevens.com/
• Instagram: missy.stevens.1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missy.stevens.52493/
• Other: https://missystevens.bigcartel.com/

Image Credits
Rusty Dyer Brad Stanton