We Interview Val Jackson
Val Jackson is today one of our most thought-provoking textile artists. She takes Cross-Stitcher on her stitching journey…
From 1950s girls’ dresses to the experimental styles of Swinging Sixties teenagers, Val Jackson’s textile art is influenced by the role of clothes in our memories. She uses layers of silk, gauze, net and other fabrics to make her embroidered artworks. Val tells us about what inspires her and how sewing sets her free…
You came late to sewing, is that right?
Growing up, I didn’t really sew very much at all, although I always liked painting and drawing. Later I did A-level Textiles at night school. I then trained as an English teacher, and then managed a shop which sold fancy goods and stationery.
By the 1980s, I was working in the day but I was also teaching adult education classes at night – I taught Textiles, Calligraphy and also Jewellery.
When did you decide to become a stitch artist?
I always wanted to do an Art Foundation course but I had to work. Then the opportunity came up when I was made redundant. I used my redundancy money to do a Foundation course in Art and Design. Then I went to Manchester Metropolitan University to do an Embroidery degree. I worked very hard and got a First! I was working as a tutor and looking after my mother – after she died in 2001, I went to college to do an MA in Textiles. Ever since then, I’ve been making things to sell and to exhibit – mostly with groups. My work is very slow to make – it’s daunting to exhibit on my own. But now I’m retired I can do what I want!
Can you tell us about your work?
All my work is garment-shaped because I think the clothes you save and accumulate over the years are markers of your life at different times. It’s a wry, semi-humorous commentary on life. I’ve done a lot of work about 1950s childhoods – little girls’ dresses, all embellished with
stories and pictures of children, with bossy things your mother used to say! I’m interested in women’s changing group identity, and how their clothes express that.
How has your work evolved?
It has a different feel. When I first started at college our original work was hand-sewn, but then machine embroidery took over. I use a mixture of old machines and modern computer-aided ones.
More recently, I have begun putting writing on my work – it’s very decorative and adds to the stories that you tell with your making. Now [using modern computerised stitch] I can use people’s actual handwriting. For example, during my MA I looked at women’s identity between 1945-60. During the war they had war jobs and were allimportant and busy – by the 1950s they were expected to be housewives again. So I took my mother’s letters from 1945, and then turned her writing into computerised stitch: it was as if she could speak again in her own voice.
Do you fancy trying hand stitching?
Not since college – it’s too slow for me! People will look at my work and debate whether it is hand or machine stitched. I think, “I could never do that by hand, it would take years.” At the moment I’m working with aerial layering – three separate pieces of transparent fabric hanging in front of each other, decorated with machine embroidery – it produces a 3D effect.
Do you have a favourite artwork?
My two favourites are wedding dresses; my mother’s wedding dress from the 1940s and mine from 1970. They have embroidered portraits all over them of who was there. Each one has humorous comments stitched on – the things that people say – such as their comments on the food, the dress, the bridesmaids.
Who inspires you?
People look at my work and ask if I’m inspired by Grayson Perry. But the truth is, I’ve been doing this for years, before I even heard of him. I’ve always loved Janet Bolton’s work. She’s now in her eighties: her work is small, hand-done, very beautiful appliqué pieces. She started doing them on the train to work, so they’re very tiny scenes. I also like Alice Kettle’s older work – it’s so full of life.
What is it you love about sewing?
It gives you the freedom. Traditionally sewing is a textile thing but I can put anything in – I can use paper, cloth, plastic – use anything I want. I like the mixed media aspect. I like that it plays into other disciplines – it’s like art. You can use it like painting, make 3D objects, you can be sculptural. I have friends who make books and installations. You can do anything with it really. I was never going to make it as a painter, but textiles frees me to do what I like – there are no fixed conventions, you can ignore the rules.
The Quilt Art exhibition is on show at Guildford House Gallery, Surrey, from 15 July to 10 September 2017.
Textiles frees me to do what I like – there are no fixed conventions, you can ignore the rules