As our Dream Map Project* unfolds, I will be featuring artists taking part in this collaborative piece of art. Today, we hear from Adriana G. Prat, whose dream embroidery panel is called "Think Something."
Here is what Adriana says about "Think Something":
Materials: Fabric mostly repurposed from rejected samples and scraps, and from my mother's sewing workshop (including organza dyed with acrylic paint), ribbon, and thread.
Statement for “Think Something”:
Years ago, in a dream, my already deceased mother told me this simple yet firm sentence which I took as a call for action. While creating this abstract work, where red symbolizes my nurturing but demanding mother’s influence, and yellow represents me, I meditated on my evolution in a life-changing journey to redefine my identity, from an unfulfilled professional life where my creativity was muffled to the artist and environmental activist that I am today. Mom’s call has worked.
Adriana answers a few questions about her creative practice, and life in general:
How did you come to textile work, and what is the meaning of textile art in your life?
Textiles have been around me since I was born, since my mother was a hard-working seamstress, working from home. She adored making and designing wedding and party gowns, although she needed to take up any proposal that her clients brought to her. In my childhood, many of my clothes were made from fabric scraps from her commissioned projects. Growing up around her foot-operated sewing machine or hand stitches, I have known basic sewing techniques all my life - when I was around 10 years old I even had a collection of stuffed animals I designed and made! I have always been attracted to fashion as well but when I embraced art as a profession, painting was my first love. A few years ago, I recognized that some mark-making in my work resembles stitches and felt the need to go back to stitching. I am also constantly pushing my intuitive art practice to be more sustainable. Working with repurposed textiles is a perfect way to honor my origins and my quest to protect our planet.
What is the importance of nature for you?
While I grew up in a big city, Buenos Aires (Argentina), my father instilled a profound love for nature in me, bringing me to our nearest park as often as possible, and teaching me to care for other species and about the dangers of pollutants. Although I loved to work on art projects, these early lessons influenced me to study science when I had to choose a university career. Eventually, after moving to the USA and having a more introspective lifestyle, I pursued art as my profession but my empathy for the natural world influences my mission to inspire action for the environmental crisis through my art.
Can you share the best advice you've ever received?
The best advice I have ever received is also from my father who taught me by example to treat others, including the non-humans, with empathy and respect. I also treasure the advice of following one’s heart when we need to decide a career or project.
What is your creative method (intuitive, planned, responsive? Etc
My art practice is highly intuitive but I create while ruminating on a subject, typically existential dilemmas and especially those derived from the human-made environmental crisis and its possible solutions.
For the Dream & Stitch Map, I chose materials and a palette that had significance for the dream I was inspired by, but once I had that determined, I worked intuitively in the flow of shapes, lines and textures that resulted in the final work.
I find that with textile projects like this one, I need to plan more than when I paint. The process is more akin to that of working with collage or other mixed media work.
Find Adriana on Instagram @agprat.art
*About the Dream Map Project: with artist Sofie Dieu, we are mapping dreams worldwide using embroidery, appliqué, stitching...
It might be a recent dream or a dream received in your childhood. Perhaps it was so powerful that it still lingers in you. As active dreamers, Sofie and I invite you to share it in an embroidery work. The world needs to dream again!
GUIDELINES:
Each artist creates a 30cm x 30cm textile work that depicts a significant dream they have received.
We will assemble the selected artworks to form a dream map. This map will then be exhibited in Scotland and Melbourne, Australia.
More details on Instagram @dream_and_stitch_project