Zen & the Arts - Field Notes

Lee Perlman Allen

I was born.  When I was eight years old my best friend’s mom, Mrs. Smith, taught me to thread a needle and stitch a flower. I’ve never stopped.  Red is my favorite color. I think the back of a piece, with its tangled knotted threads, is more interesting than the front.  It’s mysterious, like a secret about a secret.

Lee also has a red thread and linen piece, “Untitled,” inside the essay “In Praise of Folly,” in Issue I: Doing It Wrong. And a piece on linen, called “Wave,” in our Special Issue for Joan Sutherland’s essays on “The Myth We’re In.”

Pieces by Lee Perlman Allen