It all started for me during a two-week program at Iceland University of the Arts  in Reykjavík. It was 2010 and I was growing really tired of the conceptual art everybody seemed to be making. The rebel in me wanted to do something different. I’d had a conversation with my mother about wanting to try embroidery—she’s a quilter by trade—and when she gave me a carpet needle, it just made sense. From the first stitch, I could tell that this was my medium. Everything about it felt right: the pace, the meditative aspect, the structure. 

That first tool was a Danella, a semiautomatic rotary punch needle that was designed and manufactured in Denmark and is incredibly easy to use. Today, that needle isn’t my favorite, but it has a special place in my heart as it was the gateway into embroidery.

I am very interested in abstract geometric paintings and straight lines. For the most part, I use burlap or jute for my background. What I like about the burlap in particular is that the warp and weft of the material create a horizontal and vertical grid. I find it meditative to count out the grid, and it’s easier for me to create when I have the boundaries it offers. I’m currently making a piece that depicts dandelions, which of course don’t grow in straight lines, but I really like putting them in like that. I’m always trying to put nature in straight lines in my work, but at the same time, I love breaking the rules. Most embroidery comes with instructions: You get this yarn, you do these stitches in this way to make a flower, and if you make a mistake, you need more yarn. What I like to do is pick random moments from life and use an interesting technique to freeze them in time. 

I am always learning new stitches; sometimes they will stick and become part of my vocabulary, and sometimes an idea for a piece will come to me from a stitch, if it looks like a chain or a berry, for example. I’ve tried being more topical: Recently, plastic bags were a very hot topic here in Iceland, so I started incorporating them into my compositions, but I’m definitely not a political artist. I just want to make things that are beautiful—in a horrible world, there’s always room for something beautiful.