Stella's Stitch features nearly nine decades of textiles created by Stella Resnick, a near-centenarian whose family nominated her for AARP's Wish of a Lifetime program, which works to shift the way society views and values our oldest generations by fulfilling seniors’ dreams and sharing their stories to inspire those of all ages.
Brooklyn-born artist Resnick started sewing as a young child, inspired by the techniques of her housekeeper who hailed from Poland and her grandmother, who had a treadle sewing machine. In her late teens, she worked in the fashion world and later became a primary school teacher. The second chapter of her career involved supporting a successful family-owned textile business in Manhattan. The company imported beautiful fabric primarily from Italy and later Asia. Resnick began working with fibers in the late 1950s, traveling abroad to Europe on buying trips where she studied the techniques of local artisans. Rather than creating flat works, Resnick built on her research by pushing the medium, producing tactile and practical objects that entice viewers to reach out and touch them.
Her immense body of work includes three-dimensional artworks, handbags, cornices, piano bench covers, quilts, receiving blankets, clothing, and even tablecloths & napkins to match sets of China. Her textile and embroidery work features waves, flames, sunbursts, sailboats, and other motifs emblematic of these concepts.
At age 99, she lives entirely independently at her beautiful home in Southeast Florida. The matriarch of the family, she has three children, eight grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. She continues to produce extraordinary work.
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