The beauty and grace of the hand of embroidery artist Walter Bruno Brix is inspiring. He creates lovely subtle simple lines in thread to explore issues of sexuality, the aging body, and of life and death.

I am especially drawn to his series 42, a series of what I assume might be self portraits of a male nude figure. The images in some way reminds me of the photographs of John Coplans in their investigation and honesty towards the natural imperfections that come with age. The failure of our bodies to stay young and perfect.

The honesty of the work is what I love most.

He has also created a series of loincloths, which uses simple line and color to document the cloth of men in a fascinating way. I have seen very little if any other art that has treated the male body with such loving attentiveness as these works.

Walter says little about his work though what he does say is eloquent if not as revealing as we might want:

Basically no literally formulated, intellectual demand or grounds lies in my art. This would seem to me not sensible because everything what can be also expressed with words the art does not need. To me the inexpressible, non-clear, the unspoken, between-the-lines is more near to my heart.

With my art I do not want to teach, persuade nobody to something or take away on a putatively better one. My works are rather recordings of my perception.

Besides, my ranges of topics are seeming for me; the body of person and animal, sexuality, with homosexuality playing a bigger role, age and death, the fears and dreams of human. My work circles round me, round the images I think of, round my predilections, dreams and fears.

You can see more of Walter’s beautiful stitching here and here.