I always work with images of people I know, and usually am close to, or with self-portraiture. I find the idea of painting a generic figure to be quite cold. I prefer having a connection to my work. For the past few years I've been considering how to express the nature of my relationship with the subject, and have experimented with using text to do this.
I came back to England in 2011 after living in Finland, and I initially made work about people I know in Finland. Having exhausted the theme of my experience abroad, I am now looking more into self-examination, and the effects of experience.
Embroidery has become increasingly important to me, and I am now creating exclusively fibre based work as well as painting mixed media portraits. I embroider everything by hand, and purposely aim for a rough, non-uniform look, which has lead to the term "punk embroidery." I believe this style brings a real sense of humanity and character to what I do.
I'm also writing a book, and in September 2013 I undertook a residency in Iceland in order to further explore naturally weathering the canvas. I moved to Stockholm in August 2014.
You can email me here.
You can tweet me @TamsinSpargoArt
You can also like me on Facebook.
