Charrette van Eekelen enjoys pushing the boundary of textile art, not so much as a seamstress, but weaving the languages and narratives of painting and sculpture together. Van Eekelen’s distinctive method plays with materials. She brings paint onto fabrics, embellishing them with freeform embroidery, where stitches become more than mark making, delineating shapes and textures. Materiality plays a vital role, while the stitches symbolise time and movement. From her background in sculpture and painting, she melds these disciplines, with a nod to the rich tradition of embroidery and painting. Her inspirations range from personal memories to classical masterpieces, reimagining and reconstructing them. In this layering, van Eekelen’s process is intuitive. She intertwines personal and collective experiences, inviting viewers to engage with familiar materials from a fresh perspective. Each piece reveals a nuanced story, blending the histories of textiles with a painterly sense of place that could be real or imagined.