Gallery 'N' Gifts featuring embroidery artist Anya Lathrop

Gallery 'N' Gifts is delighted to welcome Anya Lathrop as our October Guest Artist. Anya is an embroidery artist. Her work is amazing in the fashion of Monet and the Impressionists.

Anya says she has devoted her life to the arts, as a musician and vocalist, actor, writer, painter and now as a textile artist. Her husband accurately describes her as, "a person with busy hands," and this restlessness is why she took up embroidery. Unlike paints, brushes and easels, a small kit of embroidery can be taken anywhere, so Anya is always able to satisfy her drive to be productive.

The limitations of embroidery are notable. The artist is limited to working entirely with straight lines and colors cannot be physically mixed. For this reason, one must layer colors and then trust that Monet knew what he was talking about when he said the colors would "blend in the eye." A realist result is virtually impossible with this medium, so Anya studied Fauvist, Expressionist and Cubist works to translate pictures and ideas into thread. She wryly describes her style as "Nouveauvist."

Many of Anya's pieces are depictions of Grimm fairy tales, which she has read countless times throughout her life. Rather than be discouraged by the ubiquitous "wicked stepmother," she found the stories were more often empowering to women through the prevalence of little sisters who save their brothers, mothers who protect their children with loving magic and even a goose girl who can command the very wind.

Come join us at Gallery 'N' Gifts for First Friday, Oct. 4 from 5 to 8 p.m. and enjoy Anya's wonderful art.