With the dawn of May, spring cleaning is underway. Dusting the cobwebs in the corners of my brain by putting ideas to paper...or in this case fabric. I have been aching to make (b)rain-clouds as of lately. That's rain clouds with a b. Its gonna be a lot of work so I hope its worth it. For a while now, I've been cutting up scraps of fabric and old clothes for additional stuffing - trying to waste as little as possible over here. Now I'm in the dyeing phase. I started dyeing with avocado pits to make pink (although yet again I think I did it wrong) and indigo for blue (for another project of a similar theme). I would like to have white, pink, and grey clouds. This way I can play with the ideas of "Get Your Head Outta the Clouds" with the audience's participation, "Brain Freeze," "(B)Rain clouds," "Grey Matter," and "Losing one's Marbles" (In which case I would like the fabric to have a marbled pattern). So far I am using silk or cotton/hemp blends because they are natural fibers that I can dye. Soon, I will be taking a trip to a warehouse where I am looking to find satin or velvet to create more tactile varieties. Once I have all the colors I desire I will: print brain inspired designs on the fabric, cut, stuff, and sew the fabric into brain/cloud combinations that I can hang. Ooofda.
Simultaneously I am working on two pillowcases inspired by Maryam Ashkanian and her sleeping series. Recently I attended an Indigo dyeing workshop with a friend of mine where I dyed two pillowcases. Since then, I have made my our indigo vat and re-dipped the cases to get a deeper blue. At the moment they are sitting in the basement waiting to be washed. Once I'm happy with them I am going to print brain matter patterns on them in blues and whites. Then I will stuff and embroider the pillow cases with more brain matter detail creating huggable gore.
Why brains and pillows? Because there is a lot of things people don't say. Things people don't consider pillow-talk...or ever-talk such as mental disorders or diseases. People should feel comfortable with talking about problems free from stigma. Because, Dementia made my grandmother forget how to paint. Because, pillows are basically a smaller version of your bed but for your brain. Because, the brain is the thing that keep people up at night. Or it is the thing that dreams. For most of my life I have had trouble sleeping. Whenever I dreamt (remembered my dreams) when I was a little girl they were nightmares. Until they stopped. Then I couldn't remember any dreams. For years. But I still was waking up several times a night, taking forever to fall asleep each time, and getting too comfortable with my snooze button. I finally talked with my doctor and hopefully we will find something that helps (besides not staring at a screen shortly before bed, or exercise, or bathing, or drawing before bed because I already do all those things). My brain doesn't turn off. It keeps talking. And talking. On and on and on. And on. Until it is morning.
More pics soon
Have a lovely evening,
-Kaitlin