Side view
Day 284: Between
After an inspirational morning jaunt to my local thrift store, I spent all day in the studio today working on a few different pieces… all of which are unfinished at the moment. So towards the afternoon, I figured I better get on top of today’s daily. I scored with a few more 25 cent vintage patterns. One of the oddest groups of illustrations included what appears to be two boys playing doctor and this guy with his adorable little bear hand puppet.
Detail of the little boy illustration
As I rifled through my other bits and pieces in the studio, I began to find items that made me think of gender identity and the gray area that some children must experience when coming of age- whether transgendered, gay or straight, the whole introduction of hormones messes with all of us at some point. And it seems that’s happening much earlier these days than it used to with all the FDA/USDA-supported genetically modified organisms and hormones in our food supply.
Detail from the bottom
Another thing happening a lot lately are the terrible tragedies surrounding peer ostracizing of gays amongst our nation’s youth, which I simply cannot understand. I can’t ever remember being straight-out evil to anyone growing up, even when I was a teenager (although my sister would probably disagree).
I often think of social patterns, and using tangible sewing patterns seems to lend itself so easily to these abstracts. This piece includes the word “between” from a vintage thesaurus, a part from the Spanish/English dictionary showing “masculine” and “feminine” under the heading ‘abstract notions’…
Detail from the center of the piece
.. the words “curiosity was aroused” and “an interesting clue” from an old Nancy Drew book next to a skirt/apron illustration from good housekeeping, pink thread and red yarn tied around a bit of twine that makes me think of hair clipping keepsakes. I often wonder if we’ll look back on this era as a modern dark age with the hope that humanity evolves soon.
"Between", mixed media on 5x7" canvas
P.S. I just found out that it’s National Coming Out Day. Sometimes I think when I’m making art I tap into the universal consciousness. For instance, check out the piece I made on 9/11 that ended up being about those issues though I didn’t realize it was 9/11 until I was doing my blog post. Spooky awesome!
Marianne Bland's Art Blog 