I actually began embroidering this piece during my holiday in the Highlands last summer. I think I was a little daunted by taking on an embroidery this size, and by the amount of satin stitch required to shade those arms, but now that I have more time on my hands I’ve picked it up again and finally finished it (and at quite a remarkable rate!)
As Alvy Singer says in Annie Hall: “Sylvia Plath – interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college girl mentality“. I couldn’t help adding a dash of dark humour with the sweet treat cupcakes and the perfectly painted fingernails juxtaposed with the foreboding text. By a sheer coincidence it happens to be the 50th anniversary of the publication of Plath’s seminal novel The Bell Jar, and of the poet’s untimely death, this February. Of course, some Plath fans would say that I am distastefully poking fun at suicide with this piece. And to them I would say, you have to laugh or else you’d cry (or is that a little too facetious?)
In a way this piece is dedicated to my teenage years when I wrote atrocious poetry and a part of me really did want to be Sylvia Plath. Thank goodness I’m past that now (not sure I’m over the atrocious poetry though).
P.S. This post would just not be complete without a mention of incorrectsylviaplathquotes.tumblr.com, which does what is says on the tin. Peruse at your leisure.
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