Final Project ~ Carolina Quintana

Intention:

My intention with this project was to create a garment that showed how the media that we consumed as children (mostly cartoons), influence the way we perceive our sexuality. The piece was intended to express the duality of the consequences of being exposed to these types of influences. My project intended to use mostly female cartoon characters that were reminiscent of my own childhood and that were reasonably recognizable to my audience. The piece also intended to show how we hide those aspects of ourselves behind closed doors; which is why I originally intended for the garment to be jeans that were reversible. The reversed side of the jeans would have the sexually explicit version of the cartoons.

Process:

To make the garment, I debated whether to start from scratch or not. However, I knew I had oversized men’s worker jeans that I had gotten in Peru. They needed alterations but they had enough leg room to create a canvas for the artwork that I wanted on the pant leg. The first step was to alter the pants at the waist; in order to preserve the original structure of the jeans, I decided to make two pleats on the backside (centered in the middle of each back pocket). Then, I ironed on the images that I ordered off Amazon. All of which would be ironed on the outside right leg pant. Then I used multi-purpose markers to sketch the rest of the images on the pant leg; sketching first with white to accentuate the color since the pants were a dark wash. After this, I embroidered the Bugs and Lola bunny patch that would go inside the pants, as well as Courage and Tweety Bird (located on outside left pocket). Then, I made them into iron-on patches and ironed them on.

Learning:

At the beginning of this project, I wanted to create a garment that would stand alone as an art piece. Something that could stand the test of time and could be seen as a symbolic object forever. However, I learned that with a topic like sexuality and the media there is a fluidity to it that can almost not be frozen in time. Instead, I chose to present the jeans as if they were in a store. This would symbolize that these jeans, as much of our attachment to cartoon characters, will pass with the season. Soon there will be new cartoon characters that represent something different for the following generation and I believe we are moving towards a global consciousness that is becoming aware of that now.