Fullfillment through the art of ‘dyeing’
Battling stress, dread and two scoops of paranoia amid watching Trump declare a national emergency March 13, I instinctively found comfort in creativity and put color to white fabric.
Since then, I’ve tie dyed over 50 T-shirts and only kept four, but prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself quite burnt out from the hobby I adopted Jan. 2017.
“We have to stop consuming culture,” Philosopher Terence McKenna said during a speech in 1995. “We have to create culture, don’t watch TV, don’t read magazines, don’t even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe…”
Though I’m not a big fan of drawing inspiration from sappy quotes, hearing McKenna’s speech during a time I felt a bit lost moved me toward creative activities. My twin is the most gifted photographer I know, and my older brother is the best guitarist I know, so I felt the need to be good at something other than cracking silly jokes to those around me.
After receiving a tie dye kit as a Christmas gift in 2016, I began dying a couple of T-shirts during the next semester of my freshman year. Maybe it’s my ego, but making the traditional swirly design was not in my plans. Instead, I sought to create my own style and incorporate shapes to counter abstract visuals in every T-shirt. Loving the concept of light conquering darkness, my ultimate goal in this newly acquired hobby was to create a lighthouse out of colors, rubber bands and pinching techniques. But as the cliché went, “Honey, you got a big storm coming,” and I certainly did.
Having no clue what I was doing, my first shirt looked like smeared paint on a paper plate. So, while making my second shirt I drew a lighthouse with permanent marker on a white T-shirt thinking the colors would absorb only inside the tracing. Instead, the shirt was colorful without any patterns and kept my rough draft tracing of a lighthouse to show my mistake.
Wearing that shirt in the cafeteria, I received a nod from CSC football and tie dye legend Collin Eisenman as he complimented my creation. The next week, it seemed he passed me his torch in the form of a flash drive carrying lots of The Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd’s greatest hits. As college became fast-paced, that moment slowed things down and helped me understand the impact small gestures have on people.
Entering my sophomore year, boredom of making similar looking T-shirt designs led to my next tie dye adventure, turning white bed sheets into tapestries. The tapestry process is more tedious and requires more dye, but it marked my first time feeling confident in my capability to create something. The larger scale of white canvas on the bed sheets allowed me to attempt new designs and understand the rules of symmetry.
From there, I went back to making T-shirts and created the first design on a shirt I liked, a blue heart in front of chaotic visuals with no pattern. By this time, the importance of patience in the process made sense since I attempted too much without any experience during my initial phase of the practice.
Entering my junior year, I attempted more shapes on T-shirts and made some progress, but again felt incomplete with my work. So, I again turned to making more tapestries, but felt no joy in the creative process and often dreaded the work. I took a 15-month hiatus to focus on my writing and work on campus and had no intention of returning to the craft.
The break concluded in March and my hands returned to being stained and blistered by rubber bands (only the toughest men understand this pain), and a flip finally switched in my head. The time away added perspective and time to think. I actually loved each T-shirt I made, but one task still remained.
Attempting the lighthouse design in early September, I knew nearly four years of experience were on my belt and for once felt capable of accomplishing my quest for construction.
Upon pinching imaginary lines traced by my eyes, I battled visualization and symmetry, but the unveiling of a T-shirt showing a tower with lights beaming out brought my creative journey full circle. Now, I can move forward and improve on future designs I’m capable of.
This simple hobby of tie dyeing white fabric became a passion and identity of mine, but it also brought moments of solace and reflection.
When taking a break from something, it’s important we continue focusing on our surroundings to assess other areas needing improvement. Creativity doesn’t make one exclusive, I believe it’s a natural trait among us, but is lost when our identity is built on consuming items and media.