British artist Emily Jo Gibbs creates hand-stitched portraits and still life that’s both delicate and endearing. “My current practice mainly focuses on hand-stitched textile collages, studies of my family that examine the relationships between parents and their children, the joys and the frustrations,” she shared in an interview with Textile Artist.
Her finished pieces, while observing the quiet beauty of the overlooked, celebrate the skill, dexterity, and creative problem solving of people who make things.
“I’ve always enjoyed making things,” says Jo Gibbs. “I have a real appreciation of color; I love fabric and the immediacy of working with textiles. It is the process that captures me, drawing a line with stitch, being able to move the line, again and again, the ability to vary the color or intensity of the mark.”
Situated at a crossroads between arts and crafts, Jo Gibbs’ work has received critical acclaim and examples of her work are in The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Crafts Council Collection, and The Museum of Fine Art in Houston. She has also frequently appeared in national and international press such as Elle, Embroidery, Marie Claire, The Telegraph, The Independent, and Vogue.
“I’m very interested in finding new audiences and telling different stories perhaps by working with distinctive groups or museum collections,” notes Jo Gibbs. “I’ve found the stories I tell, although extremely personal are also universal.”
