“Surmounting Antipathy” Jeans

1/1 hand painted and stitched jeans with custom made accents, hand placed studs and rhinestones
32 x 32 512 Levi’s
This piece is my final project for one of my classes at Parsons School of Design. As I finish out my freshman year, this final has been by far the most important to me. The prompt behind the assignment was to self-reflect on our emotions in response to the current situation we find our lives in, either positively or negatively. The title is "Surmounting Antipathy." The definition of antipathy is aversion or dislike of something, and surmount means to overcome. For me, this assignment was a chance to express a mindset I've held for many years, in which I feel inspired by subject matter and emotions that people often avoid and view negatively, and I find and express the beauty within those topics through visual art. Through the act of creating an abstracted wearable garment, I am visualizing and processing the negative emotions that I have been faced with during this tough time. I was able to create something darkly beautiful which can be literally presented on the body, becoming a physically connected extension of myself and visual representation of me feelings, emotions and thoughts. While many of the individual details and accents on the piece contain specific and symbolic meaning for me, the main focus of me making this project was the physical act of creating and ability to let go and follow the direction my mind was taking me in as it happened. I created something in the moment, without designing it fully first. For me, this was an extremely cathartic act. My usual work is very planned out, methodical and usually more simple and "clean," while this piece is a completely in-the-moment creation and reflection of my emotions and mental state represented as a garment