It’s been an exciting few weeks for the Metachicks when it comes to our DAP Project. Recently, we’ve been making a lot of really solid progress in terms of laying down not only our plan for the physical art piece that we’re designing to be created at the Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Alliance of Texas’s perinatal mental health conference but also the effect the art piece will have after the conference is over. To hear more about the problem we’re hoping to solve, please check out our previous blog post!
For our art piece, we drew a lot of inspiration from the AIDS Quilt. While our quilt will be no where near it’s massive size, the key concept of representing people who have been
affected by a health disorder, in our case perinatal mental health disorders (PMHD), through art, stays the same.
At the conference, participants will receive a piece fabric that is one of four colors depending on how they have been impacted by PMHD. Each color will signify a different experience regarding PMHD. The first color will signify the participant has experienced PMHD first hand. The second will show the participant has seen a friend or family member suffer from PMHD. The third will indicate a PMHD professional health provider, and the final color means the participant is an advocate for PMHD issues. After choosing the color of fabric that the participant identifies with the most, they will write or draw their experiences with PMHD. Each piece of fabric will end up being a square on our quilt. Right now we have two ideas for how the quilt will actually be structured.The first idea is that we will order toddler t-shirts in bulk, for not only are they in budget, they are also smaller and have the connection to pregnancy. To attach these together as a quilt we will cut the corners to create tassels that can then be tied together.
Our other idea is to buy regular fabric from a normal fabric store and sew it together like a normal quilt. While it doesn’t have the connection to pregnancy, the thicker fabric will be easier to write or draw on.
Whichever plan we end up going with, we have big plans for the quilt after it’s complete. We’re currently working on a way to get our quilt displayed in the Texas capital’s rotunda for a day. Additionally, we’re talking to State Senator Kirk Watson’s office to see if he can make a resolution on perinatal mental health next time the state congress is in session.
We’re so excited to refine and begin to execute these plans. We know our plan isn’t perfect yet, so we look forward to hearing any ideas y’all have to offer!
StarPathDesign 
Kayla, I like how your group is doing something unique to help end the ignorance on perinatal health. I like how y’all are very passionate for this project and are putting all of y’all effort into it. I personally like the first idea of buying toddler shirts and using that for the quilt because of the connection you all mentioned that it has to pregnancy. I think that it would be more effective using the toddler t-shirts but I know that whatever decision you all end up making it will impact the mothers/soon to be mothers.
Thalia
First of all, I really like what y’all are doing with the project. You have made a lot of progress since the last time y’all have talked about it in class. I agree with Thalia about trying to use toddler shirts because it an underlying cause of PMHD so it is closely tied. I also like how you referenced the AIDS quilt as an inspiration because it is really well known and it gives me a really good idea on what you are trying to present and how you are trying to present it. Art is a very clever way on making people recognize that there is a problem, and curious as to how we are going to help fix it. I am really impressed by the amount of effort and time your group is putting into the project, keep up the good work. I know future mothers will greatly appreciate the effort to help out a huge topic/disorder like PMHD.
First of all, I really like what y’all are doing with the project. You have made a lot of progress since the last time y’all have talked about it in class. I agree with Thalia about trying to use toddler shirts because it an underlying cause of PMHD so it is closely tied. I also like how you referenced the AIDS quilt as an inspiration because it is really well known and it gives me a really good idea on what you are trying to present and how you are trying to present it. Art is a very clever way on making people recognize that there is a problem, and curious as to how we are going to help fix it. I am really impressed by the amount of effort and time your group is putting into the project, keep up the good work. I know future mothers will greatly appreciate the effort to help out a huge topic/disorder like PMHD.
-Karla R