Dream Map: Meet the Artists - Molly Anand

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As our Dream Map Project* unfolds, I will be featuring artists taking part in this collaborative piece of art. Today, we hear from Molly House, whose embroidered Dream is called Night Birds."




"There is a sense of foreboding as my daughter and I approach the cliff face. We turn back and see the shadows approach. With little to lose we hold hands and leap out from the precipice. To my surprise, instead of falling, we fly like birds, over the trees and to safety."

Molly Anand is an embroidery artist. Her words are inspired by patterned tiles and are slow stitched as a form of meditation. 

The design was inspired by Portuguese azulejo tiles. The tiles are typically blue and feature an intricate quartered design. Azulejo translates as a "small polished stone," which makes Molly think of a precious gift. 

Azulejo designs have been used to tell stories. In this case the design illustrates Molly's dream.

 



 

How did you come to textile work and what is the meaning of textile work in your life?


My mother makes the most beautiful quilts.  I remember my first quilt, a patchwork made from materials that had meaning to me.  My mother included ribbons that I had won at school sports days and pony club, fabric from my old clothes, motifs from tea towels and other items that had made up our daily life. The quilts that she makes are a part of our lives, a focus point in every bedroom, a roof for a cubby, a resting place for our children and cats.  My mother taught me to knit and sew and I soon found that making things was a way to relax, to find space to be still and talk to each other and a way to make things of beauty.

It wasn’t until COVID lockdowns that embroidery became more of an art practice for me as I began to experiment with my own designs instead of following others’ patterns.  Now my textile work forms my meditation practice and allows my creative side to flourish and express itself.




 

    Can you share the significance of the dream map for you.  Do you have a dreamwork              practice?   What impact have dreams had in your creative journey?


I’m so thrilled to be part of the dream map.  I love the idea of collecting dreams from around the world and portraying them in stitch and fabric.  The dreams show that we are similar and different in many beautiful ways.

Dreams are so important for processing the information that bombards us during our wakeful hours and for alerting us to the things that are most active in our minds. We are visited in our dreams by people that we love and see every day and by people who we have seemingly forgotten or never met, but who still play an important role in our subconscious and psyches.

Like dreams, a slow stitch practice is a good way to still ourselves, and watch our thoughts, hopes, fears and desires.



What is your creative method?


I try to observe and record patterns as I go about my daily life.  Once you start to notice patterns then you see them everywhere – on book covers, floor tiles, gates and fountains.  Of course the best patterns are in nature where all things are really some kind of interlaced or recurring pattern of shapes and colours.

Once I have fallen in love with a pattern or shape I move to paper, drawing the design and modifying it so that it can be stitched.  Recently I have been drawn to squares, and squares within squares, exploring how the patterns come together at points of intersection.  I then choose fabric and thread colours to match or complement.



What is the importance of nature to you?


Many of my designs are inspired by a pattern or shape that I have observed in nature.  The design usually has to be highly stylised to accommodate my stitch style.  I find the close observation of patterns in nature to be nurturing and a beautiful mindful act.





Can you share the best advice you have ever received?


I remember when I first discovered the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an aesthetic and philosophical practice that finds beauty in imperfection and celebrates impermanence while maintaining and observing a connection to nature.  In my art I like to use antique and vintage fabrics which bear stains and blemishes, and choose to rejoice in stitch variation and imperfections.  Particularly in textile art it seems important to show the maker’s mark and hand work to distinguish the work from the flood of textiles in the industrialised world.  So the best advice I have received is to rejoice in the imperfection of my work and to look for beauty in the aged and damaged parts of life.


Find Molly on Instagram @a__molly__a


*About the Dream Map Project: with artist Sofie Dieu, we are mapping dreams worldwide using embroidery, appliqué, stitching... 
It might be a recent dream or a dream received in your childhood. Perhaps it was so powerful that it still lingers in you. As active dreamers, Sofie and I invite you to share it in an embroidery work. The world needs to dream again!


GUIDELINES:
Each artist creates a 30cm x 30cm textile work that depicts a significant dream they have received. 


We will assemble the selected artworks to form a dream map. This map will then be exhibited in Scotland and Melbourne, Australia.

More details on Instagram @dream_and_stitch_project 



Enjoy our other Dream Map artist features:


Dream Map artist feature: Owen Kelly