Anne Brooke is a mixed media textile artist living and working in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, UK. After gaining her BA(Hons) in Visual Arts and Culture she went on to teach art and textiles, and has been doing so for over 25 years. An accidental change in life became a significant new journey, where in 2011 Anne found time to begin to develop her own practice. Developing work that focused on the journeys we take everyday, treasures we notice and love of nature was a love Anne shared with others, through her stitched and embroidered collages. She exhibited her work at Bankfield Museum, Art in the Pen, Saltaire Arts trail, Yarndale, Crafts in the pen and also at the British Craft and Trade fair. She has self published her own 2 books, had work published in a variety of magazines, and later this year will be exhibiting at the Knit and Stitch show in Harrogate. After taking a short break from creating her work to focus on the teaching side of her work and take some time to explore new avenues,, Anne is excited to share the start of a new body of work for 2023.
In this new series Anne frames her work within a circular embroidery hoop that contains an additional hoop. Combining paint, fabric, stitch and embellishments in her first series entitled - ‘Whole : Hole’ The circle is representational of the whole self, a timeless cyclic movement that has no beginning or end. Yet within we experience light and dark, create and remember memories, we protect, mend and heal the circles within. ‘I am whole, what you see is me. You can’t take anything away, only trap them, wrap them up, put them in boxes. A repeated cycle in life that makes living possible. Built up over time, cracks that appear, layers that peel away, this makes up the whole you. But within my circle there is a hole, an empty space. It needs to be protected, mended and healed over time. The circle, a thing complete in itself.’