Jessie Henson’s work weaves vulnerability into strength—literally. Using an industrial sewing machine, she draws thousands of tiny lines with thread, each one pulling against the surface of the paper. As tension builds, the paper buckles, warps, and rises into furrows, transforming a flat surface into a kind of sculptural terrain. In I Offer You This Protection (hocus pocus), shimmering gold leaf glows beneath the stitching, casting the piece in both light and contradiction.

For Henson, thread is both fragile and resilient. As she layers it, the build-up becomes a kind of armor—but one that risks tearing the very thing it’s meant to protect. The embroidered marks pulse with emotional charge, standing in for states of mind—furtive, passionate, pensive—that shift across the piece like weather. While the work is formally precise, its energy is restless, reflective of the artist’s interior explorations: how we hold ourselves together, and how beauty often lives beside rupture.