• |   by Maria Crean   

    Thank you for your comments !

    During my studies I had at times worked as a sex line operator to support myself financially. I heard a lot of strange things on these lines and I would say it was mainly this that provoked my investigations into psychology and the deviant. I am constantly perplexed by what defines acceptability and wanted to use my final year at university to examine one of my most pressing issues. From here I developed my fetish series.

    I was lucky enough to come across Alica Ross' work through Jamie Chalmers/Mr X Stitch's "Push stitchery" book. I was instantly drawn to her imagery, I feel that overly sexual or controversial imagery is a direct contradiction to the inherent femininity and domesticity of traditional hand crafts like cross stitch. This is how I feel her work is in a similar strain to my own. Rather than directly impacting on my work itself, I feel people like Alicia Ross inspire me to continue working the way I do as an artist.

    At the mid-point of final year I felt that my fetish project was at a strong enough point to continue with it outside of my studies. I wanted to move on to something else that would further develop me both intellectually and as an artist whilst I still had the time and resources to work on my projects full time. I felt the natural choice was irrational phobias as these were at the opposite end of the spectrum of emotive connections to objects and situations. If I consider indifference to be the mid point of this spectrum, phobias and fetishes (debilitating fear and extreme passion and arousal) lie at either extreme. I felt this project would be a good way to continue to explore why people think how they do about certain things whilst at the same time exploring different subject matter.

    I hope this answers some of your questions, if you would like to see more of my work and previous projects you can visit facebook.com/mariacreantextiles or www.mariacrean.com

    Best wishes and many thanks for taking the time to look at my work!

    - Maria

    • |   by Madeleine Blake   

      Hi Maria, Thanks for explaining the connection between the irrational phobias and sexual fetishes. Seeing them on either ends of the spectrum really connects your series and adds a deeper layer of exploration and human psychology to your art.
      I love your choice to approach such strange, "unacceptable" topics through such a domestic, tame medium. I like the idea of seeing one of your pieces from afar, thinking it's a domestic, traditional craft and then, upon taking a closer look, realizing what it's truly about. I think this also applies to the aprons (on your site) which appear, at first sight, to be even more domestic.