Personal Project

 Personal Project Ideas

Idea 1: Fabrics that represent people in my life and chosen family

Tracey Emin's "everyone I have slept with" tent is what inspired the idea to make fabrics representative of people I care about. 

While I am not African, I imagine the final piece to look something like Kente cloth. An African fabric pattern.

Idea 2: Emotional Fabrics

https://theconversation.com/psychotextiles-could-be-next-big-thing-in-fabrics-65127

Based on this article, I could make fabric that would elicit a specific emotion

In Process Photos

This is an in progress photo of the work that represents my little brother. He is part of my biological family as well as my chosen family and is very caring and charismatic. I embroidered over parts of this fabric because he is a very complicated young man and he is both very happy and very dark at the same time. That is why it turns out half black and half yellow. 

This is an in-progress photo of stitching the work together. It all represents different things. 

This is the in-progress photo of my bearded dragon Yoda's symbolic fabric. The light yellow indicates that he is younger than me and the pattern is reminiscent of a reptile. 

This is an in-process photo of a piece of fabric that represents my twin. Gen's favorite color is purple and I feel like they are a very complex person. Lots of people are complex, but Gen is very complex. That is why it has so many different colors. From a distance, it looks much more simplified.

The most in-process photos are of my fabric representing my friend Jess. Her fabric took one of the longest because I had to embroider roses on it afterwards. I gave it roses because she is a romantic and her favorite colors are black and red. Even her room is mostly black and red. 

Detail Photos

Final Piece 

Artist Statement

    Overall, this project was about chosen family. I have the good fortune of having some of my chosen family also be my birth family, but because of estrangements with my parents, it is important to find people who I can connect with. None of these fabrics naturally fit together. They look so different and probably could be their own pieces. They are connected through me (with the exceptions of my siblings). I sewed them together because they are my security blanket. Although this work did not turn out as large as I originally intended, it did still turn out to be something that makes me feel comfort and reminds me of the people in my life who care about me. As a transgender member of the LGBTQ+ community who has difficulty getting along with their parents because of my gender identity, I believe that making something to remind yourself about the people who do care for you is important.