Craving Art

A recent email from Ingrid Fetell Lee walked us through her journey back to pen and paper, and we couldn’t help but realise the relevance of her words in terms of our time with needle and thread.

After visiting the house of an artist, Ingrid had a sudden realisation that there was something missing from her life. Art.

For her, ‘art (viewing it and making it) is a kind of life nutrient - something that just makes the rest of life better’.

One of the first things Ingrid did after coming to this realisation was to commit to drawing every day, all whilst understanding that some days will only allow for ‘one awkward little scribble before falling asleep’.

Throughout the journey that she’s now been on for six weeks, in addition to ‘warming her drawing skills back up’, she now finds herself thinking how she can bring more art into her home. For her, ‘part of that is collecting and hanging art, and part of that is a more artful approach to home: looser, more imperfect, less polished’. And it’s not just her home that’s benefitting, but also her digital life as she looks to bring more art into her online spaces.

As Ingrid so eloquently stated in her email, art is ‘like minerals. You can become deficient in magnesium, and still function mostly fine. But then you take a supplement and realise that actually you were just kind of getting by. Surviving, not thriving.’

Ingrid’s words not only helped to affirm the time we spend with needle and thread but made us appreciate afresh that even those ‘awkward little stitches’ we sometimes lay are indeed nutrients for life.