Slick Woods I (thread, acrylic, raw canvas; 24 x 27 in) continues Brandi Kole’s exploration of portraiture through stitched and layered construction.

The face emerges from fragments of fabric and expressive threadwork, each feature rendered on its own surface before being sewn into place.

The irregular stitching lines create a sense of motion and tension, echoing the ways identity can be assembled, disrupted, or reframed.

Painted areas and raw canvas interact with embroidered marks, allowing the portrait to shift between clarity and fragmentation. As with much of Kole’s work, familiar materials become carriers of memory, revealing how a surface can hold multiple versions of a story at once.