CREATE A VISUAL STORY
A GUIDE TO CREATING YOUR VISUAL STORY
You have all of the materials that you need to create your visual story at home and no prior art skills are required to participate.
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Your visual storytelling is your response to the silencing of women.
It can reflect any personal or collective experience of strength, hope, unity or resistance of oppression, injustice, or exclusion.
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Here’s a possible framework for you to use as a guide, while also recognizing and celebrating that this process will be different for each individual.
STEP ONE
Create a safe, comfortable, and brave creative space for yourself.
STEP TWO
Journal, sketch, dance, write, or speak with someone about the experience that you plan to share.
* If you feel stuck here, remind yourself that you are not alone and connect with women’s stories, browse the gallery, and explore the history of the art movement further on Instagram @womenslaundry.
STEP THREE
Consider using an article of clothing or other textile that connects with the meaning of your experience and can be used as the “base layer” of your piece. This also creates a visible and tactile way for others to connect with your story.
STEP FOUR
Gather additional materials that you might like to use to create your piece - pens, pencils, markers, fabric, photos, papers, sewing materials, a stapler, safety pins, glue sticks, scissors, magazines, watercolor paint, oil pastels, crayons, etc.
STEP FIVE
Airing Out the “Dirty” Laundry invites community engagement in multiple ways. Your visual storytelling will be joined together with others on clotheslines and in ongoing, participatory installations within communities.
As a way to physically engage the viewer, please consider adding a “top layer” to your piece (preferably sewn or attached using safety pins or staples at the top) as an invitation to the viewer to uncover/reveal/unveil the story underneath.
STEP SIX
Decide if you would like to sign your piece or remain anonymous.
STEP SEVEN
Package your story and mail it to:
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Andrea Downs
8400 Greenspring Ave.
Stevenson, MD
21153
STEP EIGHT
Invite friends and loved ones to participate and support our mission to continue holding space for ourselves and each other.