Max Mignatti

I sit and think a lot now. There isn’t much else to do when you are stuck at home with a pandemic looming over your health. I would daydream the plans I wished to accomplish before quarantine, the memories I will never have of the last moments of my high school career, the regrets I carry with me, and the dreams I have for beyond the lockdown. At first, my thoughts slapped me with frustration and robbed me of my inspiration. I was especially deterred by the fact that there was a project waiting for me in the Braitmeyer, one that will never get to work on. So, feeling hopeless and with nowhere to go, I decided to push myself to better my artistic skills instead of focusing on my product.

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I chose to begin my uninspired, yet, proactive artistic journey by teaching myself how to sew. I was determined to become the next Alexander McQueen by the end of quarantine. I started my sewing adventure by making a wrap skirt out of a bee printed table cloth. It did not turn out as I had planned, being held up by pins and not stitches, but I still love it all the same. For my next project I diverted my attention toward making a jumper dress, which I proudly sewed until the very end. With, a sewing machine that kept breaking down and many youtube tutorials, I managed to transform myself from an amateur to an okay seamstress. I have a long way to go to reach a subpar McQueen level. 

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My Plans for the Future

The other day I came across a box full of my dad’s clothing. With my new sewing skills at hand, I decided to grab a few of his pieces and transform them into garments I can wear. Although it is not portrayed in my gallery, I plan to tackle this project head-on in the hopes that it will help me understand who I am and who my father was. For all my life I only received one gift from him, my name, and now I have a box of button-ups and suits to pair it with. Now my frustrations have gone to bed and I have suddenly been pumped with an overwhelming amount of inspiration.