An Ode to Stripes

It has been hard to stay consistent and on top of this new blog. I find myself having moments of so many ideas sprinkled with moments of panic. Is this silly? What am I doing? What is the point of this? And then I start to write and process my ideas and I realize the point is to share and learn as I go. Some things I know and some things I want to know. So I will continue to share what I know and seek that which I want to understand. And when I am completely at a loss for what do creatively, I turn to stripes. They are repetitive yet varied, purposeful but also random, colorful as well as monochrome. I am drawn to stripes in textiles and also out in "the wild". In my case the wild is referring to the city streets. 

Starting in my home, I walked through the rooms, snapping pictures of the different stripes, mostly textiles. There is quite a bit of striping going on in here. From the kitchen, to the closests, the rugs and in my studio, I suppose I use stripes to express myself. And now I have "stripes on stripes on stripes" stuck in my head. Even the background image for this blog is from a striped painting I did recently. 

And after I calm down from all my stripe gazing, I looked up the history of stripes. Little did I know that stripes were actually a sign of peril way back in the Middle Ages. In terms of cloth and clothing, stripes were worn by the persona non gratae of society. Those exiled from conforming and acceptable society donned stripes, such as prostitutes, outlaws, circus people, etc. Think about the old school prison inmate wearing the black and white striped uniforms. Its hard to imagine that now when we think of stripes, it is often thought of as nautical or a cool fashion statement. Thanks to the French Revolution and sailors for changing the public image of stripes. And eventually Chanel popularized the striped shirt that we see as fashionable today. 

After my history lesson, I took to the streets, giving myself an assignment to capture all of the stripes on my walk through Sunset Park, Brooklyn. These days sometimes feel long and aimless. In my attempt to fill the void of a hot summer afternoon, I stopped at almost every stripe I saw. I am sure I caught some side eyes along the way. When we really look at our environment, we might see things that often go unnoticed. All the cracks in the pavement, when did they form? All the black "gum" spots on the streets, when did those infiltrate our walkways? How long does it take for the streets to get dirtied by creatures of all kinds? I think I will do this exercise again, though maybe it will be circles next time...