Monday's Outfit, 2021

This work exists as a white, size medium short sleeve shirt, onto which is sewn orange and red string. The string is intertwined with the shirt in patterns of continuous line making and organic shapes. Installed on a black closet hanger, the shirt is displayed to look like it is hanging as it would in one’s personal closet. This piece was created in an effort to communicate ideas of how anxiety feels to wear on the body. Clothing became a canvas onto which sketchbook drawings made during periods of anxiety could be translated into 3D drawings. The patterns on the shirt not only represent anxiety, but the shirt itself speaks for anxiety being a feeling that we carry with us on our bodies. Furthermore, the red and orange colors are specifically used as colors that relate to my personal connection to these colors as restlessness and agitation. The process itself of sewing speaks to a catharsis of art making, in which anxiety can actually find rest and release through the calm repetition of line making. My hope in making this work is to communicate my personal experiences with anxiety and express my emotions as layers that I don’t always feel I can just take off, in juxtaposition to clothing. I hope that it resonates with those who have also encountered anxiety in their own lives, as well as empowers individuals to find ways to express their own struggles as well.