Robin McCarthy: Wired for stitch

Would you wear a ball gown made of old bras to a dance? Robin McCarthy’s college project didn’t quite make it that far – but her increasingly large and inventive projects did give her classmates a good laugh.

Robin’s artistic path has been full of meanders, from embroidered jeans to a designer clothes line sold in Malibu boutiques. Today, she creates meaningful messages and floral art on wire mesh.

Robin’s journey shows us that change is not only possible, it’s often necessary. 

When the challenges of running her fashion business became too much, Robin quit to pursue a different artistic direction. 

In her art, she consciously turns away from the turmoil of the world to focus on the beauty and poetry that can still be found. Today, her work incorporates a zen practice that’s a visual pathway to exploring her feelings. As Robin says, vulnerability takes courage but leads to joy. 

Her cross-stitched flowers on wire mesh celebrate the contrast between the industrial vibe of metal and the delicate aspects of embroidery and flowers. Using cotton macrame cord and cotton perlé embroidery threads, primarily in combination with cross-stitch, her process and stitch repertoire is ever evolving.

To Robin, it’s all play, experimentation and great fun. And the mathematical challenge of working with wire mesh is all par for the course. Her advice? Step out of your comfort zone and enjoy the ride.

Embroidered stories

Robin McCarthy: Bringing storytelling into an image has always been a driving factor for me. 

In 2009, I began to embroider photographs. As those images began to lean into cultural and political concepts, my embroidery became more complex. I worked with vintage photos, which led me down a path of creating pieces with digitally collaged backgrounds, adding embroidered illustrations that are reminiscent of old 1950s graphics. 

I like the juxtaposition of innocent-looking embroidered illustrations set within a deeper, more challenging situation happening in the background. It’s not uncommon for people looking at them to first react like they are cartoon-like, but upon closer examination, they often stay a while to look and ponder them further. 

‘My work aims to spark thoughts about how we humans have a tendency to accept circumstances by not paying close attention, often at our own cost.’ 

Robin McCarthy, Textile artist

Every embroidery I’ve ever done is a singular focus on that particular story, including my current work with wire mesh flowers. My Be Here Now woven chair says, ‘Stop, look and listen’. While venturing into embroidery on wire mesh to explore themes often of an organic nature, culture and politics still peek in, especially in my word embroideries. 

Innovative stitching

Robin McCarthy: I was born and raised in California, and, although I’ve left a few times, somehow I always come back. I practise my textile art from home there now.

Since becoming more seriously focused on embroidery I’ve been fortunate to make strides in a field blooming with amazing textile artists.

When I was in college, embroidering on your clothing was a common practice. I’d long been making my own clothes so my interest in textiles and sewing was well established. This embroidery trend immediately appealed to me. 

I recall taking a pair of my bell-bottom jeans and embroidering a detailed flowering vine up both legs. This may not seem so fresh now, but back then the concept was new and inventive. One thing led to another and soon I was embellishing my brother’s and boyfriend’s shirts with embroidery.

In 1974, a book came out called Native Funk and Flash: An Emerging Folk Art by Alexandra Jacopetti. I still have this book. It explored the work of artists doing all kinds of innovative crafts, many of which experimented with the art of embroidery. Those images planted seeds of inspiration in me.

Ball gown made of bras

We were given a class assignment to take an everyday object and utilise it in something new. Over the course of this class, for some reason, each assignment I completed was larger than the previous one – it became a source of fun and joking in the class. 

I began collecting old bras of varying sizes from friends and thrift stores. Row upon row, I constructed an elaborate ball gown made out of bras. Walking into class with this enormous garment bag, twice the size of the last assignment I had submitted, was a good laugh for us all. 

At first glance, people thought it was some kind of Cinderella gown – until they noticed it was made from bras. The whole process, from start to finish, was really fun.

Family influences

Without a doubt, my early influences were my mother and both of my grandmothers.

My mother is a woman with tremendous creative strength. Everything she does reflects a keen eye for colour, composition and care. That includes decorating the home, cooking a fine meal, gardening or quilt making. No matter the expertise, her results are inevitably beautiful and full of heart. 

She taught me to sew when I was 12 and I took to it straight away. With her help and great example of attention to detail, I began to make the most of my own clothes.

My maternal grandmother was also a gifted artist and was one of the early illustrators of the Walt Disney animations. I have a beautiful paper doll complete with a full wardrobe, that she illustrated and painted with watercolours as a young woman. 

Last but not least is my paternal grandmother. Indulging my devotion to dolls, she made complete wardrobes entirely by hand with exquisite detail. These influences seemed to be well suited to my natural inclinations and eventually led me to spending many years as a clothing designer.

Fashion design challenges

For a long time, my artistic side was put to more commercial practice. I was an art major in college without a clear goal of what to do with it. A casual comment to my boyfriend at the time led to designing clothes. His business nature when responding to my comment about people asking where I got my clothes was, ‘You should take orders’.

It seemed easy enough. Little did I know the path of a clothing designer would be so fraught with challenges.

I learned how to make patterns and began taking orders. Eventually, I had my own line. I  opened my shop in Malibu and also sold to boutiques and department stores throughout the USA.

But after doing this for many years, I recognized that my artist self was a shrunken self. I no longer had any passion for the fashion industry.

Quitting cold turkey, I followed with fulfilling stints working in theatre costume shops and making creatures with the Jim Henson Creature Shop. Still searching for a new direction, I decided to return to education and studied Graphic Design at the Otis College of Art and Design.

Just for fun, I enrolled in an embroidery class taught by the magnificent Susan Hill. She was one of the lead embroiderers on Judy Chicago’s famous Dinner Party exhibition. What a wonderful, quirky and inspirational woman.

This was the liberation I had been seeking. It led me to the fine art that I’m making today.

“I found a way to continue working with textiles and threads – my first love – but in a much more playful way.”

Robin McCarthy, Textile artist 

Wire mesh and maths

One day, as I was pondering a pivot, I remembered an evening, many years ago, when I asked a friend to join me. We were to embroider flowers on a chain link fence surrounding an empty lot next door. We had no technique, so the end result was crude and simple, but I always felt there were more possibilities to be explored. 

“I was intrigued by the industrial vibe of metal combined with the delicate quality of the embroidery.”

Robin McCarthy, Textile artist

Approaching the concept in my current art, all these years later, I’ve chosen to use 6mm-13mm (¼” to ½”) wire mesh grids. The grids are available in various widths, and lengths can be ordered in a similar way to buying fabric, which has allowed me to make considerably larger pieces. 

Unlike the diamond grid found in chainlink, wire mesh is in squares. This is much more embroidery friendly. I create the large flowers using cotton macrame cord. 

Maths is required when plotting out the design. That was an element I didn’t consider as I embarked on this new material, and it wasn’t my forte in school at all. 

Be here now

In Be Here Now Chair, the word imagery is stitched with cotton perlé embroidery thread. Cross-stitch lends itself well to the wire mesh. As my process evolves, I’m starting to play with long and straight stitch, fringe effects and leaving some threads dangling. 

I’m beginning to loosen up my strategy and just let instinct be my guide, a deviation from my usual literal and structured self. This makes me uncomfortable, but I’m loving the challenge, and that very characteristic tells me I’m on the right new track.

“A lot of the joy comes from experimentation. 

Some things work and others don’t – and that’s okay.”

Robin McCarthy, Textile artist

Organic flowers

The giant flowers painted by American artist Georgia O’Keefe have always resonated with me. I love the fact that they make you take a longer look. This seemed a good place to start as I turned towards the organic instead of the political. 

On a visit to the Huntington Gardens in California, a local treasure, a guide made an off-handed remark that weeds are situational, plants that conflict with your needs or goals. For example, although dandelions are often labelled as weeds, they can be beautiful. And they can bring the pleasure of making a wish while blowing the seed head puff. 

I often start with assorted photos of the flower and then create my own graphic design of it. I place the design on a grid that is laid out in the actual size. From there, I scale it down to a print size that I can use as a guide.

The zen approach

There are some layers to my hopes for my work. I initially seek a zen element in my art practice; a visual pathway to explore feelings. Previously my art was inspired by current events of the world and it had a storytelling and editorial quality to it by design. 

The darkness and challenges of today’s times have continued to escalate and overwhelm. So I chose to pivot for the sake of my mental health, and try to focus more on beauty and poetry, which can still be found amongst the turmoil. 

I don’t create art with others in mind, but it’s a nice reward when people are affected and moved in some way by my work. 

Another hope for my work is that I always continue to grow, learn and experiment. I don’t want to stay fixed in a particular style.

“There is power in beauty and humanity. This is what I want to focus on, in an effort to create a balance between the light and the dark.”

Robin McCarthy, Textile artist

Art for love

My future plans and goals are actually the same as the advice I would give to any aspiring textile artist. Do it for love. Don’t give up. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and show your work.

Vulnerability takes courage and joy is directly linked to vulnerability – they are inseparable companions. 

I’m a storyteller at heart and it’s likely I’ll revisit some of the materials of my previous work while taking a fresh approach as my embroidery experiments continue. 

I look forward to doing more organic imagery on wire mesh, as well as word graphics on walls and furniture. I’m definitely in the early, personal exploration of these new materials and I’m excited to see where it leads me.

Although materials change, threads of personal style remain throughout. 

Humour. Beauty. Hope, Despair. Inquiry. These are all things I contemplate. Embroidery is a big part of how I process being human.

“Be brave and never stop learning and excavating for inspiration.”

Robin McCarthy, Textile artist