When performing arts student Jackie Thompson returned home to Santa Maria from Seattle during spring break in mid-March, she didn’t realize her senior year at Cornish College of the Arts was about to change significantly.
“It wasn’t long after I got home that Seattle was starting to shut down, and stay-at-home orders were being put in place,” Thompson told the Sun. “My school eventually went online anyway so I got all my stuff back from school and moved back home.”
On May 16, Thompson graduated from Cornish College with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater. Thompson is also a PCPA alumna, who graduated from the program in 2018 before transferring to Cornish to continue her education.
Her graduation commencement at Cornish was originally scheduled to take place in-person on May 7, but it later became a virtual ceremony online.
“It was very bittersweet. I was happy to be done with school, but I was also sad that my classmates and myself didn’t get to have a proper graduation, like everyone around the country,” Thompson said.
Before graduating, Thompson finished her remaining theater courses online in Santa Maria. She admitted that the two biggest constants in her life since quarantine started have been yoga and Animal Crossing. But time at home also allowed her to revisit an additional hobby, she explained.
“Learning embroidery was actually easier than I thought,” said Thompson, who has been cross-stitching for about three years but began dabbling in embroidery a little more than a year ago.
“My friend who taught me embroidery taught me one of the most basic stitches that you use—a back stitch,” she said. “Other stitches I learned through watching YouTube and Instagram videos.”
Embroidery was an on-and-off hobby for Thompson during college, and she would find designs to stitch from Etsy, Pinterest, and other websites. But her recent plunge into accepting commissions during quarantine came about partly as a way of coping with several setbacks, she said.
Originally, this May would have marked Thompson’s first month working with a theater company in Sonora, California, but her contract was revised to start in August due to COVID-19 precautions.
“This time period has brought a lot of ups and downs for me. So I found myself in a depressed place for a while,” Thompson said. “I didn’t feel the want to create anymore—not even theater, the one art form I love more than anything.”
One of the things that cheered her up and inspired her to pick up embroidery again was catching up with some old PCPA friends, she explained.
“That lifted my spirits. Us artists are all in a similar space right now, especially artists in the entertainment industry,” Thompson said. “After sharing an embroidery piece I did with them, they encouraged me to start commissioning my pieces. And now, here I am.”
Anyone interested in sending commissions to Thompson for some custom embroidery should check out her Instagram (@tackiejhompson), where you’ll find some examples of her work so far, ranging from homages to Stephen Sondheim to Bob’s Burgers.
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is not a snitch, but send him stitches anyway at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 4, 2020.