#5: Thoughts on Mortality and Art

Last year when I was handed the cancer card, I learned it’s an experience that deconstructs your life without your permission. Facing your mortality is a strange, solitary walk. You can have a village of support, but when you’re sitting in that chair watching radioactive material move through your veins for a scan; no visitors, no moving, and no cellphones for an hour, that moment belongs only to you.

In that kind of stillness, you find out what you’ve been filling your bucket with. You realize that "later" is a luxury we assume we’re owed, but "now" is the only thing we actually possess.

Recognition

This perspective changed how I look at Welded Hanger. I see the designers I work with: Pondhopper Remixed, De Kill Designs, cL Creations, AWRY Studio, Timeless Treasures, and Time Traveller Upcycle. They are not just designers but people who understand the value of the present moment.

I know some of their stories because we’ve sat over coffee and talked about more than business. I know that when Pondhopper Remixed says she’s working on a new piece, I may see it in a week or in 3 months. She isn't just sewing, she finds joy in practicing the kind of patience that honours the process and the final outcome at the same time. When De Kill Designs creates fearless or joyful pieces, she isn't just making clothes, she’s insisting on being seen right now exactly as she is. I see it in the way cL Creations bridges her life’s work of taking in the stories of others, no matter what the age or background, and releasing it into her work as a maker. The mother-daughter team at Timeless Treasures who stitches emotion and life moments into secondhand and vintage fabrics. AWRY Studio using her formal training to tackle new techniques or the soul of Time Traveller Upcycle reconfiguring pieces of clothes we know into new pieces we love more. These artists aren't chasing a trend, they are pouring their current and honest selves into every patch and seam.

"Now" Matters

We spend so much of our lives editing ourselves. I’ve said it before, we dress for the room and for the expectations of others. We dress for a future version of ourselves that we think will finally be "ready." We think that once our timing, health, or budget align we will finally be our true selves. But we don’t actually get to decide if we have time to wait. 

Interestingly, I’ve seen these designers request a piece back while it’s on display because they felt a sudden and urgent inspiration to add more. They don't wait for the next collection because they honour the creative impulse the moment it strikes. Our collection will never follow the path of being “pumped out” in five minutes. Whether on a canvas, a sculpture, on a stage, or on a runway, that’s not how art works.

Truth

To the reflex of an implicit bias, this is "just used clothing." But through the lens of someone who has faced the stillness of a scan, it is art, and the secondhand fabrics that are used are the raw materials.