Crewel Embroidery Valance c. 1937

Lawrence Peterson stitched this crewel embroidery valance, and I can imagine the gentle, rhythmic push and pull of the needle through the fabric, creating a fanciful landscape in thread. The color palette is soft and muted—earthy browns, gentle greens, and hints of pinks and blues—and the stitches pile up, building texture, creating little hills and valleys of yarn. I imagine Peterson hunched over his work, carefully choosing each color, each stitch, and building this whimsical world from the ground up. A world of strange trees, misshapen flowers, and plump little birds. What was he thinking about as he worked? Was it a form of meditation? An escape? A way to bring beauty into the everyday? This piece reminds me of the work of outsider artists like Henry Darger, who created intricate fantasy worlds in their art. There’s a similar sense of obsessive detail, a devotion to the act of making as an end in itself. All these artists, working across different media and different eras, remind us of the human need to create, to imagine, and to transform the world around us.