Day 327: Reveal something

I'm going to make a confession (or just concede to something...). A lot of my posts are going to be about school projects. This makes it feel like I'm cheating (and breaking promises)... but here are my reasons why.

1. I am currently making three corsets at once.

2. All of these corsets are involving a lot of handwork, such as embroidery, hand-stitching, or beading. Because of this, I really don't have a lot of time to even think about doing other art work. I mean... it's kind of incomprehensible.

This being said, I'll probably be posting about my art work that I make for school. I mean, not a bad thing, because if I might say so myself, my work has been fairly strong. Of course, I only have second years to compare to right now, but nonetheless, it's a bit more powerful and more thought-out than my past work. Especially these garments. Though... I don't recommend making three corsets at once. Especially when the deadlines are one or two weeks. Ugh. Thankfully, my husband was good enough to agreed to cutting out pattern pieces for me. It was a huge time saver, and I'm so appreciative. Not surprisingly, not having to cut out fabric saves a lot of time. No wonder Laura Flook sets her patterns cut out at a production house.

Any ways, the above piece (which is 90% finished) is for my second silkscreen project. The assignment was to reveal something about ourselves, using photo stencils. It's going to be strange to critique this, as my silkscreen class is a second year class. Usually second years reveal things like "I ride horses" or "I like my family". Nothing terribly thought-provoking. As a fourth year who has done a lot of projects and knows what is most evocative... Guess what I decide to do? I decide to make a corset that reveals EVERYTHING. It is an artwork that reveals my vulnerability, my depression, my anxieties, and my fears. It focuses on fears, and I decided to use silk organza, with silkscreen phrases that describe my anxieties and fears. The organza (all nine layers) are sewn on top of each other. This fades some images, and pushes some almost entirely out of view. I felt that it made the layering and piling of thoughts literal. Maybe too heavy handed... but I don't know how I would have done it any other way. The final phrase is (obviously) most visible, and is (coincidentally) over the heart. It says 'One night I curled into his chest and wept.' This relates to the absolute breaking point of depression. I'm nervous to critique my piece, because I will have to discuss how depression affects me, where nothing is wrong, but my mind manages to force to me to think about everything that scares me. For context, the phrases include things like 'I am afraid of falling apart, and seeing my body decay', 'I fear myself', and several others that fade away as they become more private. If the piece was held up to light, someone might be able to figure out what it says, but it's still more obscured and hidden. Still, I will be able to say something, and probably throw a curve ball at the younger students. They're just so sweet and innocent... And frankly, I respect that, but it's so boring and naive.