Steve MacDonald (Ramblin Worker) at Gallery Three!

Gallery Three is proud to present “Upstairs Is Where The Magic Happens,” a new body of work by Steve MacDonald.  Intermixing gold, silver and explosive colors, MacDonald creates enchanting worlds made of thread and paint. Please join us for the opening reception on November 7th from 7-11 pm. Steve MacDonald is no stranger to the art community. Known as a jack of all trades, master of one, he finds his own unique niche in sewing. His artwork has paved the way for a number of creative ventures including designs for Modest Mouse, PUMA, MASH and most recently Huf SF.

Steve MacDonald’s embroidery embraces alternative forms of visual expression by diverging from domestic and industrial traditions of sewing. With an obvious attempt to use less paint than thread, he creates images that command fine craft and a still hand. His process begins by cutting up painter’s canvases and re-sewing them like patchwork to achieve an unorthodox template. He then maps out a rough sketch on the canvas and traces an outline with his Singer 503a. His vibrant colors of thread obtrude from the canvas with overlapping patterns, creating a contoured surface. Inspired by the urban and natural landscapes of the Bay Area, his multicolored clouds of smoke stream from the city skyline sewn with gold, red and blue threads. The combination of pattern and contrasting colors tend to create optical allusions, guiding the eye back and forth across the canvas, entrancing the viewer.

Ramblin Worker is a San Francisco based artist. He began his formal art education at the Kansas City Art Institute where he earned a BFA in sculpture. He later went on to earn a MFA at UC Berkeley. In addition to his solo art projects, he’s been engaged in a number of collaborative endeavors across the country and around the world.