Queer Love and Lives

More Sacred Love/Sacred Lives artist statements

Reading time: About 3 minutes

Screen capture of six completed pieces for Sacred Love/Sacred Lives, taken from my website, where you can view all currently completed pieces.

Sacred Love/Sacred Lives is a mixed-media embroidery art project I began at the end of 2022. I shared an initial round of artist statements in November 2023. Since then I have continued to work on statements for completed pieces in the series as and when energy allows. I’m not putting a deadline on these statements, nor am I completing them in the order that I complete the pieces. It’s more like, when the mood strikes, I sit down and write one. And when it feels complete, I’ll publish it.

So, without further ado, some more artist statements from completed pieces in the Sacred Love/Sacred Lives mixed media embroidery project.

Don’t let anyone tell you your life and who you love and how you love is anything less than sacred.

---

Queer Lives are Sacred, Medieval Unicorn

Mixed-media: Acrylic paint and embroidery floss

Unicorns have long been adopted as a symbol for the queer community. We are magical, often unseen, believed to not be “real” and yet admired by many. We glitter and prance. We can be elusive and we tend to be quite unique. We are ‘other’, different, quirky, and intriguing.

---

Queer Love is Sacred, Pan & Bi Unicorns

Mixed-media: Acrylic paint, stick on rhinestones, fabric marker and embroidery floss

With this piece I wanted to capture something of the playfulness of being queer, as well as our variations.

The unicorns in this piece sport manes of many colours. On the left, the pansexual flag, on the right, the bisexual flag. While some have argued that pansexual is the more “progressive” term to use, considering the many genders of humans, there is plenty of room for both terms. We ought not to chastise anyone for using a word that fits them best, and I hope this piece reflects the harmony to be found by having more than one word to describe what it is to be attracted to a person more than to a gender.

---

Queer Lives are Sacred, Rainbow Bunting

Mixed-media: Fabric scraps embroidery floss

Queer culture is strongly associated with the nightlife as much of queer life has had to be enjoyed at night for the sake of safety. In the cover of darkness we pull on our preferred clothing and gather in clubs to connect, to gossip, to fall in love, to celebrate our love and lives. Over the years, as laws have changed and we have gone from being ruled illegal to being ruled insane to being seen as just as human as a straight and cis person (mostly, sometimes) we have been able to come out from the dark bit by bit. But there will always be something particular about the protection of the night and what it means to be queer when the stars are bright and the drag monarchs are on stage and the DJ is playing Disco.

---

Queer Love is Sacred, Cuddling Kitties

Mixed-media: Fabric marker, stick-on rhinestones and embroidery floss.

I don’t have a lot to say about this design other than, lesbians! Lesbians and cats! Oh, to be a lesbian’s cat! Truly the best rebirth to aim for if you don’t manage to get into a Buddha realm.

---

I am seeking to collaborate with other artists for this series.

If you have an idea for a design that would work for this series, please get in touch! You can email me: hello ‘at’ kschatch ‘dot’ com or look at the online gallery of this project to learn more.

---