Throughout this project, I have used textiles and screen printing to explore the freedom I have felt after coming out as a lesbian and the joy I have experienced with my new girlfriend. Each butterfly is screen printed in the colors of the lesbian flag, reaching up the tapestry to the sky. The final butterfly at the top is a sage green, representing my recent name change to Sage. With the butterflies printed on another piece of fabric and then attached to the canvas I was able to add stuffing to create physical dimension. The butterflies are a visual representation of my journey of accepting myself and who I am. Surrounded by a patchwork of various colors, I worked to create a piece that feels like it is stitching itself together—loving itself, healing, and creating a beautifully cohesive work of art.

    I wanted to use patchwork to create more visual texture as well as to allow for the eyes to flow in different directions around the piece. I greatly enjoyed creating this piece and I will be doing more work like it in the future. In the bottom left corner, a poem titled From Cocoon Forth a Butterfly written by Emily Dickinson is screen printed. Emily Dickinson was a prolific queer poet. She is known for her naturalistic metaphors and her bold original voice. By incorporating this poem into this piece, I connect the symbol of women as a butterfly in the poem to the butterflies cut out and printed in the tapestry. The poem talks about light overcoming darkness, this is how I have felt since coming out. 

           This project acts as a continuation of the previous piece, with the concepts exploring the elated feeling and joy of my finding and accepting myself. This work focuses more on the physical act of loving myself. The piece works as a love letter to me and how far I have grown. The self-portrait printed on the center piece of fabric radiates outward creating an ornate textile frame around the head. I have taken inspiration from the ornate frames of the Renaissance period. These frames held important paintings of important people, by placing myself within this imagery I aim to put myself in a place of celebration.          

Having gone through many life changes lately, I am proud of how I have been able to keep my head up and keep moving forward pushing myself to become the person I want to be.  The patches encircling the portrait represent a part of me and my life. Orange and purple colors symbolize my coming out as a lesbian, and various shades of green show my recent name change to sage as well as my favorite color. Butterflies often represent freedom and growth in my work, these can be seen in the background of the piece as well as peeking through the patchwork. Under layers of lace sewn into the bottom of the work, I have stitched in green vines growing up the patterned fabrics, these are symbols of my growth both physical and mental. Some of the vines are longer than others, representing that I have more growing to do. Throughout the entire piece, I experimented with color and textures, and how layering can elevate patterns and textures that are already present within the piece.