Sue Muirhead is a lover of deep connection, the wild, windy world, and passionate, soulful creating of all kinds. Sue began an exploration into a variety of art forms in the early 2000’s. She found great pleasure in putting colour and form on paper. Over time, ‘process art’—art without an investment in the outcome—has become one of her most enlivening ways of expressing and processing her thoughts and feelings. Sue expresses creatively for the joy and the full bodied aliveness she feels when she engages her creative spirit.

Over the last year she has shifted mediums and now has become a ‘process stitcher’ where she stitches for the sheer pleasure of expressing. Sue is calling this show ‘Spirits of the Forest – Stumps and Stitches”. Sue shares, “When I walk in the woods, my soul, the essence of me, connects deeply to what surrounds me.” Stumps fascinate her, pull her in, capture her attention.

When in the forest and amongst the trees and stumps she often feels the presence of spirits. Most cultures in the world, at some time in their history to present day, have honoured, feared, and/or held in high esteem the many spirits of the forest and believe that they exist. Forest spirits are often thought of as protectors, keepers or guardians of the woodlands.

Sue thinks of stumps as teachers – often cut down, taken out, they sit benevolently in the forest, in clear cuts, sometimes looking bedraggled or barren; forever changed from what they once were. Given time, however, new life begins to form and they can become a haven for new growth, incomprehensible beauty. They teach that it is possible to be cut down in life by circumstances beyond our control, and over time there is the possibility of innovative beauty and renewed life.

For this show, Sue and her brother, Patrick Hill, went out into the forests around where they live and took over 200 pictures of stumps. Sue then took up what she now calls “Process Stitching” (an approach borrowed from Process Painting), where she stitched with no investment in a predetermined outcome , emphasizing exploration, experimentation and self expression. She called on the stitches to make visible, to

embody as much as possible the spirits of the forest. When stitching, Sue states she “feels the fabric and thread as living beings, alive.” Embroiderer Christi Johnson (2021) offers, “The creative process is not simply about what is being made; it is an entirely mystical process that teaches us how to move between the internal world of the soul and the physical world outside….Embroidery offers an opportunity to return to the natural order. Stitching by hand slows down the body and, over time slows down the mind.”

The essence of Spirits of the Forest – Stumps and Stitches is a full engagement of Sue’s creative energy and love. When engaged with her creative spirit and the wild world that surrounds her she shares, “I feel the wind, I feel the moonlight, I feel the spirits in the forest…and my hands stitch and stitch and stitch…”