Hardanger Filling Stitches sampler by Yvette Stanton
“That sampler at the end…! Oh my word. It’s stunning! I know this is going to sound weird, but every time I look at the sampler, my heart noticeably palpitates.” Mary wrote this in an email to me, and then said “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing!”
Apart from the fact that I feel that Mary should get herself checked out medically, if she actually thinks there might be some sort of heart/nervous/adrenaline issue, I think this is an exceptionally lovely compliment. (Thank you, Mary!)
We can be moved to tears by a beautiful artwork. I love the feeling of goosebumps – the frisson – I get when my friend Kathy’s voice harmonises with mine when we sing together, or when I hear a beautiful choral work. We can feel a reaction to beauty in a physical manner. So I think it is entirely reasonable that embroidery that Mary finds beautiful can give her heart palpitations.
Do you experience a reaction to beauty in a bodily manner? What does it for you, and how do you experience it?
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Goodness. No, I don’t think I have a physical response to beauty in that sense. Although I was struck dumb when I first met the Chasse a la Licorne tapestries in the Musee de Cluny, which is very nearly unheard-of!
Haha!