Peace, Love & Understanding

So when someone asks you to make something for a wearable art exhibit and you've never done anything of the sort, what do you say? "No" would the logical answer, but I was lacking that when I answered in the affirmative.

So I spent months stewing over it. I contemplated sewing something from scratch, then came to my senses and decided that I would just alter the heck out of something. A couple of trips to the resale shop and one black jacket later (purchased for the price of a mere $4), I was still no closer then when the idea had been originally proposed.

My problem was lack of theme. I've been preparing to start a new series of art quilts called "The Soapbox" that explore political/social commentary. I have a lot of sketches and tried to apply some to the black jacket I had bought but they didn't translate well. And I hesitated to do something real "in your face" as the venue where it will be displayed is more family friendly. (I believe you should make the art you want to and be as blunt as you feel you need to but I also believe there are some places that are more appropriate to display certain kinds of art then others.) So I took an idea that had been brewing and that I thought would be well received and went to town on this jacket.

Here is what it looked like before I started:



And here is what it looks like now:



And lots of detail shots:








This was a fun one to make. I used shiva paintsticks and did some chunky stitching. I'm really liking the grafitti style and plan to explore that more in some art quilts. I call the jacket "Grafitti Wisdom."

I told my mom that I never thought I would have cause to make artwork like this. My hope is that I won't need to for much longer. After all, we all need a little PEACE, LOVE and UNDERSTANDING.