Inside the Studio

Visit with Stacey Beach

Stacey Beach sitting at her sewing machine working on a textile piece in her studio.

Stacey’s quilted textile works draw from art history and her own lived experience to build an imagined archive that celebrates decorative and folk art traditions and their deep ties to the maternal, the domestic, and the feminine. Step into her studio below.

Two images side-by-side, one of Stacey Beach sitting at her sewing machine and smiling in her studio and the other a close-up of her working on a textile piece at her sewing machine in her studio.
Two images side-by-side, one of Stacey Beach's hand pinning a cut-out textile toy horse onto a piece of canvas, and the other a close-up of her hands working on a textile piece at her sewing machine in her studio.
An image of one of Stacey Beach's sewn textile works next to another image of a close-up of one of her sewn flowers.

My quilted textile still lives depict flowers, vessels, female busts, sculptures, artwork and various personal items sampled from art history.

Stacey Beach

Two images side-by-side, one of Stacey Beach carrying a stretched canvas textile piece in her studio, and the other of her hanging a stretched textile work on canvas on the wall in her studio.
Stacey Beach examining a textile piece depicting multiple vases and vessels on a table in her studio next to a close-up of a sewn flower on her work.

Images are sketched with chalk pencil on a bolt of black fabric and then cut by hand with an X-acto blade, creating a line drawing with the fabric. This fabric drawing is then top stitched on 2 layers of raw canvas with cotton batting sandwiched in between. The quilting process results in a topography on the surface of the pieces, giving body and texture to the drawing.

Stacey Beach

An image of one of Stacey Beach's sewn textile works next to another image of her picking up one of her stretched pieces and examining the back.
A close-up of a sewn flower on Stacey Beach's textile work.
Stacey Beach sitting at a table in her studio in the late afternoon light working on a large textile piece.
A close-up on one of Stacey Beach's textile works depicting a surfer.

My work depicts floral embroidery motifs, Dutch still lives, Mycenaean, European and American folk art, and ancient Greek vessels, both real and imagined. Images of women dominate the still lives as do artworks from celebrated female artists like Joan Brown, Alice Neel, and Laura Owens.

Stacey Beach

A Stacey Beach textile work depicting a framed image of sunflowers, a vase with greenery, and several busts.
Two images of Stacey Beach sitting at her sewing machine working on a textile piece in her studio.

These still lives are an imagined archive, a collection recognizing the marginalized traditions of textile, decorative and folk arts, and their inextricable association with the maternal, the domestic and the feminine.

Stacey Beach

Artworks by Stacey Beach

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