Solar Punk: Finished

 Earlier in the week I talked about my new solarpunk quilt.  When we left off, I was here, with the major design elements in place, but with the whole thing feeling finished.  

Here's the final piece, and I think it just feels a little fuller.  I added quite a few more plastic bits around the trees.  I also added the orange fuzzy circles in the backround and I think they add a bubbly sense of movement and fun.  And I added a bunch of details with paint markers/pens which you can see better in the close up.  Finally, I decided it needed a dark border to finish the edges.  Previously I'd finished the edges with a couched yellow yarn (you can see a bit of it dangling from the bottom right corner in the picture above, but it felt unfinished somehow and I though the skinny dark border would pickup the dark bits in the quilt.

Here you can see the edge better, it's a dark purple traditional binding, and then I stitched on a fun piece of blue trim around the outside edge. 

Here you can see some of the tiny little polka dots I added.  In my brain, they're good vibes, good music, good mist, good something emanating from the little floating ships.

I'm happy with the way it came out, fun and sunny and bright.  I'm not particularly optimistic about it's chances to get into the show; I feel like they'll probably be looking for things that are a little more refined, but it's a fun piece and I got it done!  I know the future isn't always good, but with all the stressful things surrounding us in real life, I like a positive imaginary life!

It's always sunny in the future, c. Shannon Conley, 2023, 38" x 26"

The artist statement for it says: Not all technology-filled futures are dystopian. Here I embraced solarpunk and an optimistic vision of the future where we use technology to generate clean power from the sun, conquer pollution, and save the planet. The neon-colored 80s kid inside me has hope for a reforested future of humans happily living among the trees, in harmony with the natural ecosystems and flourishing as part of the great biodiversity of Earth rather than at its expense.