Held in Common: Yellow
In 2019, four members of the Hana Kark Collective—encaustic artist Caryl St. Ama, painter Margaret Lazzari, mixed-media artist Nancy Kay Turner, and Carlyn Clark—began a collaborative project using color as a unifying thread: Chromatic Collaboration. Working independently across primary and secondary colors, each artist created 25 distinct 6” x 6” birch plywood panels per color.
Yellow was the fifth color in the spectrum. Expanding on the text exploration from earlier series—where words and phrases were isolated from the same source book on individual gessoed pages—the work evolved into combining remaining pages to construct multi-panel narratives and small tales. Stitching on paper also prompted an inquiry into the tactile similarities and differences between paper and fabric, leading to experiments with woven paper strips, layered gauze, and hand-stitching across media.
Designed to interact with one another, several works in the Yellow series function as multi-panel pieces where imagery and text flow across panels—forming extended phrases such as “Many and hard were the tests” continuing to “Surely it is the end” on the next. Continuing the commitment to buy no new materials, each stitched piece is laminated to a 3/4” Baltic birch plywood panel stained yellow.
Yellow #1 | Held in Common Series
Layered mixed-media composition on gessoed paper with subtle yellow paint washes. A meandering ribbon of vintage rayon seam binding winds across the bottom right, heavily patterned with hand-stitched yellow straight stitches. A small found text paper strip highlighted in yellow is woven beneath the stitched fold.
Found Text: “wonderful wisdom”
Materials: Layered paper, found text strip, gesso, acrylic wash, hand embroidery thread, laminated to a 3/4” yellow-stained Baltic birch plywood panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4”
Yellow #5 | Held in Common Series
A richly textured two-panel fiber and mixed-media composition featuring dense, web-like layers of chartreuse, yellow, and subtle green thread work overlaid upon a diagonally striped background pattern. The intricate fibrous network partially masks fragments of found text nestled into the upper section of each panel.
Found Text: “the beginning of certainty” / “cemented by sweat and blood”
Materials: Layered embroidery thread, fiber netting, printed pattern ground, found text fragments, acrylic wash, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4” each panel
Yellow #3 | Held in Common Series
A dynamic two-panel grid composition constructed from woven, torn paper strip, torn cloth, Monopoly money and other vintage ephemera in varied tones of yellow and ochre. Each strip is anchored across the white gessoed ground with linear white running stitches, framing subtle fragments of found text beneath the intersecting web.
Found Text: “visiting her father” / “he suddenly found the use of speech”
Materials: Layered paper strips, vintage ephemera, found text fragments, gesso, hand embroidery thread, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4” each panel
Yellow #8 | Held in Common Series
A three-panel (triptych) mixed-media study in texture and luminosity. Each panel features a crumpled base of vintage yellow rayon seam binding, anchored by an organic paper element that has been gessoed and painted to reveal selected found text. A line of faceted yellow glass beads traces the lower edge of each hand-stitched paper patch.
Found Text: “a token of submission” / “an object of much veneration” / “an entirely different and indeed far superior order”
Materials: Vintage yellow rayon seam binding, gessoed and painted paper, hand-stitched running embroidery, faceted yellow glass beads, found text, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4” each panel
Yellow #6 | Held in Common Series
A tactile two-panel textile and mixed-media study exploring repeating line and texture. The top panel features folded, chevron-pleated yellow cloth alongside stitched yellow wooden beads over hand-painted vertical stripes. The bottom panel pairs vertical black-and-white striped fabric pleated with raw-edges. Torn yellow fabric, hand-embroidered cross stitches, and stitched bead accents frame found text phrases across both pieces.
Found Text: “inspired by a lofty patriotism and chivalry” / “The very humblest eventually among the noblest.”
Materials: Folded ribbon, patterned cord, raw-edged fabric, yellow wooden beads, hand-stitched cross embroidery, acrylic paint washes, found text fragments, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4” each panel
Yellow #11 | Held in Common Series
A delicate two-panel mixed-media composition featuring an interplay of textured yellow textile patches and intricate, web-like green and yellow thread netting. A meandering strand of small pearl beads loops across both panels, encircling the fibrous layers and framing selected fragments of found text revealed on the pale ground.
Found Text: “wearied from much travelling” / “he would not go of his own free will”
Materials: Layered yellow textile, embroidery thread netting, pearl bead strands, found text fragments, acrylic paint wash, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4” each panel
Yellow #13 | Held in Common Series
A layered two-panel mixed-media composition featuring geometric yellow-patterned paper grounds, torn book pages, and raw-edged yellow fabric patches. Vertical hand-stitched running lines cascade across both compositions, anchoring yellow painted coconut shell pieces stitched with radial thread spokes that frame revealed text phrases.
Found Text: “grotesque blends of fable and fact” / “complications and combinations”
Materials: Geometric patterned paper, torn paper, book page ground, loose-weave yellow cloth, stitched painted coconut shell fragments, hand embroidery thread, acrylic wash, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4”
Yellow #10 | Held in Common Series
A two-panel mixed-media study exploring structured geometry and organic line work. Built on painted book pages with select text phrases revealed, each panel features layered spiral paper paths secured with bright yellow ladder stitching. Flat, round wooden disc beads are threaded along zig-zagging embroidery thread, meandering around the perimeter and framing the compositions.
Found Text: “showing strength of character” / “They all exert their utmost power”
Materials: Book page with painted-out text, acrylic wash, paper elements, flat wooden disc beads, hand embroidery thread, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4” each panel
Yellow #9 | Held in Common Series
A luminous two-panel mixed-media composition built on book pages where surrounding text is painted out with a bright yellow wash to reveal single selected phrases. Concentric, rectangular spirals of painted paper are layered onto the page and anchored with dense, ochre hand stitching, creating a maze-like path accompanied by small, stitched wooden beads.
Found Text: “evidence of the far wanderings” / “And we may pause to note”
Materials: Book page with painted-out text, gesso and acrylic wash, painted paper strips, dense hand embroidery thread, wooden beads, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4” each
Yellow #12 | Held in Common Series
A rhythmic two-panel mixed-media composition constructed from horizontal torn cloth and paper strips layered in warm yellow and ochre tones. Continuous yellow cord serpentines back and forth across both panels, anchored with hand-stitched couching that weaves over the layered grounds to frame fragments of revealed book text.
Found Text: “as evangelisers and saints, many became famous” / “in the ensuing life of beauteous adventure”
Materials: Torn cloth strips, torn paper, book page ground, thick yellow cord, hand-stitched couching thread, acrylic wash, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4”
Yellow #4 | Held in Common Series
Mixed-media composition on a torn found text page, featuring vertical hand-stitched yellow thread lines running down the right edge and a central translucent yellow wash oval. A yellow painted coconut shell fragment is stitched along the left, anchoring intersecting yellow paper swoops and prominent bold text highlighted in the center.
Found Text: “an indignity, she said,”
Materials: Torn found paper, translucent acrylic wash, yellow paper elements, stitched painted coconut shell, hand embroidery thread, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4”
Yellow #7 | Held in Common Series
A delicate two-panel collage composition layered with torn neutral and white papers over an ochre-tinted ground. Both pieces feature bright yellow painted ovals housing small found text fragments, anchored across the paper tears with horizontal rows of ochre straight stitching that extend across the background.
Found Text: “Many and hard were the tests” / “Surely it is the end”
Materials: Torn layered paper, found text fragments, acrylic paint wash, hand embroidery thread, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4”each panel
Yellow #14 | Held in Common Series
A structured, tactile composition set on a painted book page ground with surrounding text whited out to highlight the revealed phrase. Three horizontal bands of soft yellow herringbone twill tape cross the page, with the lower band anchored by six wooden toggle beads stitched vertically across the surface.
Found Text: “walls were useless”
Materials: Book page with painted-out text, acrylic wash, yellow herringbone twill tape, wooden toggle beads, hand embroidery thread, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4”
Yellow #2 | Held in Common Series
Textured mixed-media textile composition featuring pleated fabric machine-stitched onto layered found paper scraps. The upper section highlights a torn book page painted with a soft yellow wash to reveal the found phrase, balanced by hand-stitched yellow wooden beads along the left edge and a sculpted piece of painted coconut shell stitched near the top center.
Found Text: “Among shining lights”
Materials: Pleated fabric, found paper scraps, painted book page, yellow wooden beads, hand-stitched painted coconut shell, acrylic wash, machine and hand stitching, laminated to panel.
Dimensions: 6” x 6” x 3/4”