In our July 2024 Studio Hours session, we had a great time speaking with multidisciplinary artist and D&T Studio Member Lia Pas and enjoyed a preview of her Digits & Threads article that came out on July 17. We love having the opportunity to speak candidly with the authors of these articles.
Lia was a composer, performer, and writer for many years. In 2015, while working on a dance opera, she caught a virus and has suffered complications from it ever since. She now lives with myelic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS. ME/CFS is a multi-system disease, causing both physical and cognitive symptoms. In the aftermath of her diagnosis, Lia searched for ways to stay creative within the bounds of her symptoms.
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Lia was open with us, sharing the challenges of losing such an integral part of her life—the music and theatrical work—and how she came to take up embroidery again. In one period drama that she watched, a woman was told to “take to her bed and work on her embroidery,” and Lia thought, “I’m in bed, I know how to sew, so why not?” But many embroidery patterns feature flowers, which is not really Lia’s style, so she started to search for her own inspiration in scientific texts and diagrams.
In a slide show featuring many of her embroidery pieces, Lia shared both overviews and detailed photos of her work. She also had many of the pieces with her and held them up to the camera for us to see. It was wonderful to see her work in person rather than as a photo. Lia provided details about each one—why she chose the subject and how she was feeling as she worked on it. She shared some pieces from her Anatomy series. An early piece, a depiction of the cell division process of mitosis, served as a learning tool as it is a sampler of many different embroidery stitches (she is currently working on a pattern for this piece). She also showed the stitched piece that was featured on the cover of Sharp Notions magazine —an intricate depiction of the lungs, accompanied by the embroidered words of a poem, she breathed, stitched in red between the bronchioles.
She then shared her Symptomatology series, a fascinating body of work in which she has used embroidery to depict the symptoms of her ME/CFS, especially the paresthesia or tingling symptoms. These pieces make her invisible symptoms visible, and Lia says that the meditative action of stitching and the deep focus on the symptoms have served to make them less overwhelming.
She sometimes outlines the symptomatic body part in the same colour as the fabric. She then works the symptoms in other colours, generally working free hand. One piece depicts the tingling on her tongue with cream and grey stitching on white fabric. Another shows a full body map, with blue stitching showing the tingling and the pain she felt over a couple of months. She later revisited the idea and the new piece shows the improvements in her symptoms.
A member commented on the detail of each piece and wondered how long they take to complete. Lia answered that many of the pieces take two to three months, with larger pieces taking a year. She likes to work on larger, more intricate pieces because the setup is the challenging part, requiring more cognitive energy than physical energy. Once it is set up, she can just work on it, pacing herself by working for twenty minutes and then resting for twenty minutes.
She then described the setup of a piece. She starts with research, using anatomy textbooks such as Gray’s Anatomy or Andreas Vesalius’s works. She decides which organ or symptom she wants to work on, chooses a source image, and then scans or draws it. She must decide on a scale to work at, particularly if she is including text or specific stitches, as they need to be large enough to show without the piece being completely unwieldy! She then transfers the image to the fabric, either by tracing it directly with a fabric marker or chalk or by using a water-soluble paper material that can be printed on using a printer, stuck to the fabric, and then later removed.
She has shared some of the pieces with her doctors, which has helped in her care as it helps them to understand that she knows enough about anatomy that they don’t have to translate everything. They can also see where her symptoms are more prevalent.
She then showed us a closeup of her nearly completed work on the vagus nerve system, a piece worked on green fabric, with blue stitching showing the pathways of the nerve and yellow lines depicting pathways relating to the polyvagal theory. She generally works on linen fabric but couldn’t find any in the colour she wanted for the vagus piece, so used quilting cotton instead.
A member asked about the words and poetic phrases on many of the embroideries and wondered why the addition of language is so important in the pieces. Lia answered that, as a poet, poetry is part of how she makes sense of the world and how she makes sense of what’s going on with her health. She also chooses text by using a technique called homophonic translation, in which words are translated into homophones (words that sound the same or similar to the words in the scientific text), picking phrases from anatomical descriptions of the body part she is working on. She also looks at the etymology of the Latin anatomical terms and translates the definition into more poetic terms to use as labels.
Another member asked Lia how she has maintained her sense of humour through her medical challenges. Lia answered that Stoic philosophy saved her sense of humour. She clarified that stoicism is not being unemotional, but rather about focusing on what you can control and flourishing within those bounds. She also credits meditation and her creative work.
Lia was asked whether she has connected with other people with ME/CFS or other chronic illnesses. Lia responded that there is a large community online, as many people with chronic illnesses are housebound. People have responded positively to her work and have found it useful, even going so far as sharing her images with their doctors, saying “These are my symptoms too.”
A member asked what advice Lia could give to someone newly diagnosed with a chronic illness. She replied that they will need to experiment with what works for them in their current state as they work to rebuild a creative practice. Most importantly, people need to find something that helps them achieve a flow state again—something that is challenging enough but not exhausting.
As we closed the presentation, Lia shared a quick peek at her next piece—a depiction of a stent in her iliac vein, with the base image obtained from an image taken by her radiologist. We look forward to watching the progression of this work in future Studio Hours sessions.
Show and Tell
Our first show-and-tell item was the cozy blanket from the recently published Large Blanket, Small Loom blanket pattern. Sarah Thornton, Studio Member and designer of the project, showed the drape of the sample and invited members to email her at sarsbarknits@gmail.com with any questions about the pattern.
Next, we saw four beautiful cotton bandanas dyed with indigo using geometric Japanese shibori resist techniques. The rich blue of the indigo contrasted with the white areas where the dye didn’t reach due to stitching, folding, and clamping patterns. The member who showed the pieces had just taken a class from Yarrow Kuntz of Indigo Tales, an instructor based on Gabriola Island, B.C. The indigo dye kits and the fabric blanks used can be purchased from Maiwa.
Another member showed her new Cloud Blouse, by designer PetiteKnit, knit with one strand of fingering yarn and one strand of mohair in a cheerful yellow colour. She pointed out interesting details at the cuff and hem, as well as in the shoulder shaping and warned us that the English translations in the video tutorials were not entirely accurate!
Lastly, we saw a Staple Tee, designed by New Wave Knitting, which the maker has enjoyed customizing, using both white and dark blue stripes and adding lacework leaves around the bottom hem. She’s also added beads to the tips of the leaves to help keep them from curling up. The New Wave Knitting system generates pattern numbers and directions for any gauge and any yarn.
Featured photo courtesy of Lia Pas
