THREADING A NEW PATH: How a Disability Led to a New Artistic Style

In 2018, I developed bilateral trigger thumbs, which meant I could not tie my shoes, write my name, or hold a brush, much less paint. I wanted to keep painting while contemplating the possibility of surgery, but with both hands in metal braces, I had to devise a new way to work. I could grab a pen with my other 4 fingers, so I started making paintings by drawing with ballpoint pens, but they faded almost immediately. I wanted to create a more permanent version of these paintings.

Figure Ground, detail, ballpoint pen on canvas, destroyed.

I searched for a way to reproduce the fine line of the ballpoint pen; thread came to mind. I “drew” with the thread, moving it around on colored paper which I photographed and used as studies for large paintings.

Creating Gravity, 48” x 48”, oil on canvas (left)
Photograph of threads used for the painting. (right)

Working on “thread” painting post surgery.

With the thread paintings, I preserved the sense of light, where the background modulates because some areas are shaded by the thread, while, in some cases, the sense of depth comes through the layering of the thread. By using real objects as my starting point, I find imagery I haven’t seen before.  It affords me a new vocabulary and imagery to explore.

Artist and Model, 53” x 45”, oil on canvas, © Leslie Parke 2019

Studio with some of the “thread” paintings.