Sampler c. 1937

This ‘Sampler’ was made by William Parkinson. It’s hard to know when, but Parkinson lived from 1855 to 1995. Look at the way Parkinson carefully built this image with tiny X-shaped stitches. It reminds me how every artwork is a process, a sum of decisions and actions accumulating into something new. The texture is incredible! You can almost feel the raised surfaces of the threads, and the subtle color variations create depth and shadow. See the little yellow cat, how the stitches capture its playful energy as it bats at the box. The whole thing is so domestic, folksy, and heart-warming. Parkinson’s ‘Sampler’ shares some of the same obsessive energy as the work of Yayoi Kusama. But where Kusama’s work is about overwhelming infinity, Parkinson creates a contained, intimate world. Ultimately, art is about endless conversations and interpretations. It is about building something unique from collective sources.