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Stitching Symptoms: The Anatomical Embroidery of Lia Pas

17 July 2024
By Lia Pas
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I came to embroidery in my mid-forties after becoming disabled with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

I was a composer/performer and writer but with the overwhelming fatigue of ME/CFS I needed to find something less taxing as a creative outlet. I sewed from a young age and did some traditional Ukrainian cross-stitch in my teens, so embroidery felt like a good option.

Six anatomy books open and piled on Lia's lap and on her lap desk, all showing various illustrations of the hepatic system.

Research for my liver piece, tethered by fluid & ligaments (2023)

I wasn’t especially interested in the embroidery patterns I saw online—I am not a flowery person—so I started stitching some of the digital SciArt text/image pieces I had made before becoming ill. With my first piece I was hooked. Embroidering anatomy and my symptoms followed soon after. In this article, I’ll guide you through my process from inspiration through to completion.

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Find Lia on social media:

Instagram: @lia_pas
Twitter/X: @lia_pas

Photo credits Lia Pas.

Copyright © Lia Pas except as indicated.

About Lia Pas

Lia Pas is a Saskatoon-based multidisciplinary artist who works in image, text, and sound, exploring body and states of being. She focused on performance-based work until 2015 when she became disabled with a chronic illness. Since then her work has focused on text and fibre arts. Her symptomatology and anatomy embroideries are part of SK Arts (formerly the Saskatchewan Arts Board) permanent collection and have been featured in numerous online publications. You can find her work in the anthology Sharp Notions, with one of her embroideries gracing the cover.

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