What a great talk we had this month by Alison Hulme. Alison kept us riveted right from her opening remarks and then throughout her life history. An infectious sense of humour had everyone laughing. This helped to give a light touch when recounting a life history that has had plenty of ‘ups’ and also some ‘downs’. Earlier life included hairdressing, single parenting, housekeeping, waitressing, cooking, Ideal Home demos, cattle auctions and much more. Alison spoke about stitch and textile art in the context of her life’s journey, and the place that art has had in general wellbeing. There is a colourful joyfulness in her work that is a pleasure to see.
Alison’s first step into stitching came from a tiny cross-stitch kit that she bought from Hobbycraft, which she bought at a time of great stress and crisis in her life. Something about the repetitive act of stitching was very soothing and comforting, and it gradually became all-consuming. Eventually it led to joining Salisbury Embroiderers Guild and then enrolling on a City and Guilds course in Fareham.
She really found her element in the City and Guilds courses. The two pieces above were City and Guilds assessed pieces, which she would never sell in a million years. Stitch became an all-consuming obsession.
She became interested in doing a textiles degree, and part of looking into that was undergoing a dyslexia assessment, the results of which helped to make sense of some of some past issues. The piece above was a direct challenge to herself, where she used text as a kind of affirmation and statement to the world; ‘I is for Intelligent which I am. A is for Alison which I can spell’. Another major theme for the degree course was ‘voyerism’, for which she incorporated stitched images of her husband naked, as well as an installation that she called ‘What the butler saw’. During the course, Alison discovered screen-printing, and this led to her developing her trademark ‘pinnies’ in glorious colours.
After the degree course, Alison has been involved in Open Studios, Art in Action with Art VanGo, as well as talks and demos at the big shows. More recently, Alison has moved back to her home village, and takes part in Open Studios there.
The audience appreciated this stimulating and varied talk, which was full of surprises. Scroll through the photos to see some of the work that Alison brought with her to illustrate her talk.
