Sampler 1935 - 1942

This sampler was made by William Kieckhofel, though we don't know exactly when. Look at the surface, those countless tiny stitches! I can just imagine Kieckhofel, thread in hand, carefully building up these images and letters. It's like a form of drawing, but with thread as the medium, each stitch a deliberate mark contributing to the whole. What was he thinking as he worked? Maybe about the tradition of samplers, a form of creative and technical practice for centuries. I wonder, was he thinking about how his work fits into this historical line? Embroidery has this amazing tactile quality. Think of the time and patience involved. See how the texture creates depth and shadow? The motifs—the cross, the figures, and the alphabet—all have symbolic weight. I wonder if these were taken from other samplers? Artists are always responding to each other across time. Kieckhofel would have looked at earlier embroiderers, and now we're looking at his work, finding our own meanings in this conversation, connecting across time and medium.