About Microcosms

The embroideries of Tom Lundberg take a variety of forms; badges, pockets, and footsteps are among the shapes that become emblems of memory, everyday life, and human movement. Within his thread pictures, stitches intersect and overlap to form densely layered microcosms.

Anne Gochenour, curator at the Arkansas Arts Center, describes these pieces as “impasto stitching, creating layers of marks and an almost three-dimensionality. The pieces are dreamlike in their imagery. Lundberg sees them as fleeting moments made concrete through the time and labor intensive, repetitive motions of stitching.” 1

Of his works, Jessica Hemmings—writer and faculty at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton—wrote, ” … there is conflict between the ominous and the patient, tension between the fertility of nature and the profligacy and destructiveness of mankind. But in Lundberg’s world the cycle is constantly shifting; neither good nor bad remain polarised for long. It is work that requires consideration and contemplation…. The small scale of the work instills a sense of intimacy and the possibility of disclosure.” 2

The medium of stitched textiles carries memories of ritual and comfort, and offers perspective on the subjects of time and vulnerability. For Lundberg, even small pieces of cloth can reveal fragments of life’s large and expansive rhythms; details can suggest a bigger picture.

1. Gochenour, Anne, curator’s essay for Stitches: An Invitational Exhibition of Fiber Art, Arkansas Art Center (2007).
2. Hemmings, Jessica, “Contemporary Narrative Samplers,” Craft Arts International 60 (2004): 114–115.