Well, NEOS is over for another year and I’m glad of a little peace and quiet. (For new readers, NEOS is “North East Open Studios”, a yearly art event during which we hold a group exhibition for local artists) It all went very well, and to my surprise I sold quite a lot of things. However there was one funny incident, which I thought that the embroiderers who read this blog might appreciate
A man came into the exhibition, and after walking around for a while, settled in front of one of my pieces, a large embroidery featuring three crows in a tree. Finally he told one of the people there that he’d like to buy it. She took it off the wall, and said conversationally “Yes, it’s a lovely embroidery, isn’t it?”
He stared at her in horror. “You mean it’s an EMBROIDERY?” And he walked out of the door and left it behind
I thought this was very funny but I couldn’t figure out exactly what was wrong with embroidery. Someone suggested that perhaps he associated embroidery with old-fashioned handiwork like cross-stitch, and didn’t want to be seen buying crafty things like embroidery, when he meant to buy arty things like paintings. Oh well, it didn’t matter. And the piece was sold a couple of days later to someone who didn’t seem to mind that it was embroidery