Sandra Sheehy

Sandra Sheehy is an artist from Norfolk, England (b. 1965) who creates beautiful mixed media works composed mostly of embroidery and beadwork. She has no formal training in the art of embroidery, but was drawn to use thread because of the great range of colors available.

The emotional qualities and charges of each color are important to Sheehy, as her works are celebrations of love, color, and pattern. She began making this work as a way of creating love tokens for her husband, and since that time her inspirations have multiplied. Never planning a piece before starting, Sheehy likes to lose herself in the process of making until each piece is finished. Of her work, Randall Morris says, “Sheehy’s work is explosive in its orchid-like voluptuousness. It occupies two planes of vision in that one can look at these obsessively stitched, beaded, and drawn constructions from a distance and close-up and get different readings.

The message is a very personal and deep, resounding universe that doesn’t quite throttle itself on its own details but sends a message of rough, intricate beauty.”