Over the summer, senior Sadie La Prairie immersed herself into her art. She began working more than she ever had, spending a minimum of four hours a day purely to create art.
And when the school year started, La Prairie grew increasingly interested in printmaking through Lane’s Printmaking class. She took her new found interest alongside her motivation to create art and experimented with putting prints on clothes.
La Prairie has been working with art for as long as she can remember so most of the inspiration for her prints come from her own sketchbooks but she also looks to Pinterest for other forms of inspiration, she said. However, she values originality in her work.
“It’s really important that my designs are original so I make sure the majority of what I produce comes from my brain,” La Prairie said.
By printing on clothes, she can show off work that she is proud of and feels represents her who she is, and she also hopes she can inspire others to find ways to be sustainable and to be more creative.
So, La Prairie got the idea to sell her clothes on Instagram, and she hopes this way, her art can reach more people.
La Prairie manages the business by herself, sketching each design on her own. She said the feeling of getting her business up is empowering and leaves her feeling proud of what she’s accomplished. “I really love that I’ve made this from the ground up, even if it isn’t very valuable or significant,” La Prairie said.
She wasn’t completely alone though, her Printmaking teacher, Liana Faletto, has supported La Prairie throughout. Faletto provided some materials to La Prairie when she was starting off, and would take time after school to answer her questions.
La Prairie said she is grateful for what Faletto has done, thanking her for the continuous push keeping the flow of creativity. “It’s so important to have someone show interest in your art, especially when you’re trying something new,” she said.
All of the clothes La Prairie uses is thrifted from second-hand stores. One of the main reasons for using thrifted clothes is to find more ways to be eco-friendly.
With social media and microtrends, people have an excess of clothes that they end up donating to thrift stores, according to La Prairie.
“So many clothes end up in landfills, so many clothes are produced unethically in sweatshops and at the expense of people just trying to make enough money to survive,” La Prairie said. “[…] So I take those clothes that would otherwise end up in a landfill and I create something new with them!”
By doing this, she can contribute to helping the Earth, even if it’s a small step. “I know a lot of teenagers like me feel guilty for not doing more to act sustainably. Sometimes I want to pull a Greta Thunberg and drop out of school to save the world. But I can’t,” La Prairie said. This is her way of healing the Earth, she said.
La Prairie hasn’t made any sales yet, but she hasn’t let that discourage her from continuing what she’s doing. She’s proud of herself for getting to this point, and she loves the art that she’s creating. “It kind of feels like I’m saving the clothes and giving them a new life, which is so silly but it makes me feel good, so who cares,” La Prairie said.
