Burbank, California based artist Michelle Kingdom creates fantastically strange embroideries on linen that look like paintings. Some have even dubbed them as “stitched paintings.” For Kingdom, they are “narrative embroideries” that weave stories made out of thread. Embroidery is oftentimes discarded as craft, but that is part of its appeal to the artist, who uses it in an unexpected way to express her innermost thoughts and escape to her imaginary world. Measuring a miniature 8″ inches square on average, recent images feature tiny landscapes inhabited by tiny Thumbelina-sized people. In her statement she writes: “My work explores psychological landscapes, illuminating thoughts left unspoken. I create tiny worlds in thread to capture elusive yet persistent inner voices. Literary snippets, memories, personal mythologies, and art historical references inform the imagery; fused together, these influences explore relationships, domesticity and self-perception. Symbolism and allegory lay bare dynamics of aspiration and limitation, expectation and loss, belonging and alienation, truth and illusion.”
The strange textile sculptures of 
"I love bodies," says artist 
Turkish-American designer