Grey Eckert
Artist based in South Carolina
ABOUT
Nellie Grey Eckert (she/her) was born in Durham, North Carolina, where she spent her childhood convincing others to call her by her middle name. After graduating from Coastal Carolina University with a BA in studio art, a BA in graphic design, a minor in photography, and a minor in art history, Grey attended the University of South Carolina, where she earned an MFA in studio art. She currently teaches at Coastal Carolina University. Her fiber-based work investigates the chronic disdain that stereotypically feminine interests — ‘craft’ art, love stories, and Taylor Swift — face.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Historically, cross-stitch bears a relational function. The feminine virtues, domestic responsibilities, and spousal devotion that they describe attracted potential suitors, ensuring successful ‘love’ matches. Subtracting text from found cross-stitches — a process akin to erasure poetry — transforms lengthy, pre-determined verse into short instances of speech. Sweet nothings, passionate ramblings, and lovelorn pleas impose a contemporary love affair upon the traditional marital practices in which cross-stitch is ground, recontextualizing a dismissed form of feminine expression and asserting the validity of girlish handicraft.
Website: greyeckert.com
Instagram: @nelliegreyeckert