Tom Waits, The Heart of Saturday Night

Embroidery stitched directly through a vinyl record sleeve.

12x12x2 inches, framed in acrylic.

     A lot of people say Tom Waits is an acquired taste, his arrangements are unique, his voice gruff and gravely and a lot of his songs are very avant-garde. But once you get into his songwriting you will be a fan for life. Chances are you’ve heard his songs sung by other artists. I put him up there as a writer with Dylan, Springsteen or any of the greats. The Heart of Saturday Night was released in 1974 and it is among my favorites of his. When you listen to this album you can almost picture yourself in a dark smoke filled bar. The music is intimate and the stories and subject matter timeless. The cover features a painting of Tom on a neon lit city street smoking a cigarette while a woman approaches him. The cover suits the album perfectly. I embroidered the album using wool thread with over 85,000 tiny stitches in over 35 colors. My goal was to replicate the moody dark cover with the texture of thread. The album title was created as a patch and affixed onto the album as a final step.