The Chronicle Project challenges artists to document a single day in their lives and share it with the community. 24 hours. 1,440 minutes. Or 86,400 seconds — to keep track of something specific, like every sound you hear, or attempt to capture your overall impression of a day. The resulting chronicles will be exhibited in the Brooklyn Art Library and collapse 1,000 unique days into one.
Lately, I've been on something of a walking-bender, and I wanted to incorporate that into my project. Basically, I bought myself a pedometer for my birthday, last year, out of curiosity to see how many miles I naturally clock, and my questionably-obsessive chronically has revealed over 140 miles in the last month! Crazy (clinically so, you might even say). So for my chronicle, I broke down a 24-hour period into steps and miles, over six panels: Getting ready; Morning commute; Work day; Evening commute; Hobbies & fun; and Bed.
Once I had lived out my day and taken notes on all the various things I saw and did, I illustrated the panels with a representative image for each segment. In order to express a sense of connected ongoingness--and in a way that embodies the style of Warren Tales--I sewed these images into resized upcycled card with a single, 6 yard length of embroidery thread. Each image/panel is connected by this thread, as was my day by my steps.
The project used zero knots and, again, only 1 continuous piece of thread (with a length left at each end to symbolize the day before and after this one). The panels feature images of dressers/doors; an approaching train; a desk/computer; a crowded subway car; a pencil and paper (for my writing group that I participated in that night); and a bed.
By making small divots, rather than back stitching, it allowed a cleaner, more continuous line, and resulted in an almost braille-like raised pattern on the back of each card. And within this pattern I added some illustrated footsteps to help get the message across, along side the number of steps and the mileage up to that point in the day: Getting ready 381 steps, 0.18 miles; Morning commute 1273st, 0.62mi; Work day 4430st, 2.16mi; Evening commute 5454st, 2.64mi; Hobbies & fun 13015st, 6.36mi; and Bed 13100st, 6.4mi.
Finally, the extra leads on either end allow the whole kip and kaboodle to fold up and tie together flat! And so, fun and pretty project, I call thee "Ped-Antic". . . get it? Teehee
Thank you Art House, see you again this Fall for the 2013 Sketchbook Project!
Wow. Just WOW! Who knew Warren was so handy with embroidery and cardboard. It turned out beautifully and is SURE to be a hit, my friend :)
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