IV. ARMRESTS, for 1964 Rivera

Double strand Persian wool on 12 mesh canvas, two: 15 x 2 3/4 x 1"
Continental stitch in all four directions
Approximately 22,104 stitches in the pair, 1979

I have long been fascinated by the receding effect of coffered ceilings. As I travelled through Europe the summer of 1979 and saw many such ceilings, I incorporated "coffering" into my work.

I chose to do armrests for my car, not only because it needed them, but because the canvases were small and easy to carry. The stylized flowers come from sitting in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Other stitches were taken in the squares and along the sea wall in Venice, in the Botanischer Garten of the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, near den Haag (The Hague) in Holland, at Stonehenge in England.

Both ARMRESTS use the same colors but in different proportions. This is a device I'm particularly fond of -- making matching pairs or panels which, at a glance, seem to be the same, but on closer inspection are seen to differ.

The ARMRESTS were completed on a trip to Greece that same year, when I was invited to the First International Women Filmmakers Symposium in Thessaloniki. The final stitches were taken atop the Acropolis in Athens, sitting on the steps of the Parthenon on a windy day. The ARMRESTS served for seven years in my classic, 1964 Riviera.

They represent my first totally improvised patterns.