The Struggle, final image

Wow.  I am here.  I made it, for now. 

 

The struggle was constructed using 4 dresses layered on top of each other.  These four dresses, one green, one blue, one white and one black all have a history.  The green and blue one's I wore when I was very pregnant.  The white one was a maid of honor's dress for my friend's wedding, the day after that wedding I found out I was pregnant.  The black dress came from summers of pre-marriage, pre-child carefree awesomeness.  I ditched the yellow skirt that was also supposed to be Incorporated into this outfit. 

 

I worked in a lot of deconstruction to this dress, stitching and then cutting away to reveal the layers underneath. I didn't get too fussy with the details, because as we know by now this dress didn't start off with a bang.  It just kind of limped on like a good failure should.  It feels good to have kind of not succeeded with this one.  Well, maybe I did or maybe I didn't, who's to judge?  

 

The hem of the dress is not finished.  I like to look at the dress as just being under construction.  It kind of reminds me of that Missy Elliott album Under Construction, really feminist, brutal, but a reminder that we are not perfect and that we are all just constantly working on ourselves to be ourselves. This is also kind of where the final photo came from.  The idea that as we struggle there is what we perceive ourselves as, and what we are... but what we struggle with is our mirror or our projected self, who we think we are or who we think we ought to be. 

 

I am not going to lie, I spent most of my day in my Pajamas, working my butt off on the wrap/belt/failed first corset of this dress. I really worked furiously and fast.  There were already components of this appendage that were being worked on as part of my 10 minutes of stitching each day, but for the most part it all came at the end. 

 

The chickens are the funniest part of this... they are really becoming dear to me, sweet keepsakes, funny and nostalgic and classic literal reminders to keep pecking away at this project.  Don't be Chicken, keep going.  On one of them I stitched the words "Open Up", it could be seen as a com and to reveal all the red sequins I stitched inside the pouch, or it could be read as an other reminder to say open, not shut down, keep honest about this project, how I feel with it, where things are coming from, etc. 

 

I have also taken an old Gadsden flag with all the revolutionary history past and present (currently now a favorite of the Tea Party, which I claim no allegiance to) and claimed it as my own... instead of "Don't Tread on Me"  I made my own motto, as I am designing these various states of Wylie; "Treat me Well" 

 

And finally I have stitched the lyrics to a new Moses Atwood Song, a song called Hard Disposition... I will keep this part brief seeing as the album has not been released yet.. When you hear the song you will know why I honor it here. This musician, friend, performer, poet inspires me to be better at all that I do but to stay true to myself while making it.  His music is amazing and if you have never heard his songs you should go out and purchase all of his music right now.

 

Next Up-  Oh I already know her name and everything--- a dress that starts with persona in hand, ready to go... I just have to dress her... check back tomorrow and I will tell you all about it.