California Coastal Series
Memories of Monterey
This thread painting began with an old photograph taken by my father while he was stationed in Monterey, California, with the U.S. Navy.
Monterey has always had a special meaning for me. I was born there while my father was attending the Naval Postgraduate School, so when I look at this piece, I'm not simply looking at a California coastline. I'm looking at a place that is part of my family's story.
Artwork Details
Technique: Thread Painting
Dimensions: 32" wide x 24" high
Collection: California Coastal Series
Availability: Private Collection
Some artwork carries a story before you ever put the first stitch in it.
My father loved photography. While serving in the Navy, he spent time in Japan, where he bought his first camera—a Petri that I still have.
Years later, he gave me two photographs he had taken near Monterey. I eventually turned both of them into thread paintings.
Memories of Monterey, II is the second of those two photographs.
I reproduced the photograph fairly literally, preserving the rugged coastline, the trees, and the dramatic rock formation that caught my father's eye.
The first photograph became my first thread painting. It was less detailed than this one, but it was an important beginning—and eventually became the piece that was featured on Simply Quilts.
Want to know how this piece almost never got finished?
Read the story behind it on my blog, Stories Between the Stitches.
A Photograph From My Father
A Moment of Déjà Vu
I was working on this piece in my gallery when four young people stopped to see what I was doing. I showed them the work in progress and the original photograph and mentioned that the photograph was taken in Monterey and that I had been born there.
"Oh, that's where we're from!" they said.
They asked whether I had gone to the local high school and what year I had graduated.
Before I could answer, one of them guessed, "1998?"
I must have made a rather disturbing face, because he immediately apologized. You have to understand, this happened in 2002.
"Oh, sorry. 1999."
At the time, I was about 42.
I had to laugh. Apparently, they thought I was in my early twenties.
I'll take that compliment wherever I can get it.
The Story of the Sale
Once it was framed I took Memories of Monterey, II to one of the summer art shows in Laguna Beach.
It was a quiet weekday afternoon, and a woman stopped at my booth. I introduced myself as the artist and let her look around.
Eventually she started asking questions, and we began talking. I told her the story behind this piece and mentioned that it was going to be featured in an upcoming issue of a magazine.
Another couple came into the booth and began looking at the artwork. The woman I had been talking to immediately turned to them and told them the story I had just told her—almost word for word.
They were impressed. They looked at a few more pieces and eventually left.
But she and I kept talking.
Twenty minutes passed.
Then another ten.
A security guard made his rounds and noticed that I was still talking to the same woman. A little later he came by again and quietly mouthed, "Do you need help?" I shook my head no.
We kept talking.
Another fifteen minutes passed before our conversation finally reached a lull.
She looked at the artwork. Then she looked at me.
And quietly said: "I'll take it."
I literally shook my head in disbelief. "You know it's $4,500, right?"
"Yes. I'll take it."
I was walking on air for the next several days.
The magazine came out the day after she purchased the piece.
The next day, she came back to the art show to tell me that she had gone to the bookstore and bought all the copies that were available.
I don't think I could have asked for a better ending for a piece that had once sat unfinished in the corner of my sewing room.