Crewel Embroidery c. 1936

This Crewel Embroidery by Ella Josephine Sterling, made with what looks like watercolor, feels like a dance between control and letting go. It's a soft, muted palette, all pinks, greens, and yellows, that creates a sense of harmony, but there’s also something a bit wild about the way the forms are rendered. You see, it’s the kind of piece where the imperfections are what make it sing. Look at the way the lines wobble and thicken, how the colors bleed into each other. You can tell Sterling wasn’t trying to create a perfect representation of nature. Instead, she was interested in capturing its essence, its energy. And that’s what I love about it. The way it embraces the handmade, the imperfect, the human. It reminds me of Hilma af Klint, in the way it seeks to express inner landscapes rather than external realities. It is a reminder that art isn't about perfection. It's about process, about feeling, about making something that resonates with your soul.