Embroidery

For ascension day and the weekend, I traveled across the country to go visit my girlfriend at her place in Wageningen. There, I spent most of my time enjoying her company, and her cat's company. Very little time, in fact, was spent on thinking about the embroidery.

When I did eventually get to it, these were the things I came up with.

Finding my voice as a creator:

The first patch I made is that of a 20 sided dice. This icon is the staple of my art practice. In the past week, I listened to a presentation by Griffin Mcelroy, a creator of podcasts whose work I really enjoy. He spoke of how he found success, doing what he already did.

I've come to realize that tabletop roleplaying games, for which the d20 is a very common tool, has been what's been driving my creative motivation for years. Now that I've realized this I'm taking steps to actually turn this into my practice.

Finding my voice as a social butterfly:

The second embroidery I made was that of the forget-me-not flower. I've always liked the look of this flower, and the name very much spoke to me. When I was younger, I tended to blend into the background too much. I was shy, easily disturbed and a bit of a cry-baby. People tended to forget I was there because I would go out of my way to be unnoticeable.

When I started at the academy I made the conscious decision to no longer be that person. I went out of my way to be a more social person and really try to find a more active place within the group, This resulted in the first half year being absolutely exhausting, but I feel more comfortable with the social person I'm becoming every day. I've got a long way to go still, but I'm taking it one step at a time.

Finding my voice as part of society:

The third embroidery relates to my intersectionality. This past year I've been reinventing myself en the way I look at things. This practice is very easily linked to this evaluation that I'm going through.

I realize that I grew up in a position that is very privileged, and I grew up not questioning the norms and values my parents tried to teach me. Within the practice and within the academy itself, I'm brought into contact with people who are different than I am, and I'm slowly learning how to relate myself to the other and trying to see how other people's experience of the world is different from my own.

I'm trying to open myself up more to these different experiences, and trying to see what I may learn from them.