the queer magic mushroom experience
a queer psychedelic exploration of life, love, fashion, and fungi
screenprinted bandanas. queer fashion. a lookbook zine.
I’m creating a gender neutral collection of wearables and comforting items by sewing a series of bandanas I design together that will explore the queer psychedelic mushroom experiences of my own and other queer folks through the use of floral and fungal imagery, bright warping lines and colors, celestial and symbolic imagery, and queer themes to inspire other queers to explore their own life and identity through magic mushrooms.
The bandanas will be hand-dyed using tie dye. The variability in color and opacity mirrors the queer ephemerality and mystical qualities of fungi and mushrooms.
The wearable pieces and comfort items will be proud symbols of queerness, both human and fungal.
The full line will be documented in a 20 page look book zine.
printed bandanas
The point of this project is not to suggest those who use psilocybin mushrooms will experience exactly what I or others have experienced, but to open the audience’s minds to the magical, healing, and mind-opening possibilities of magic mushrooms through a queer lense.
Mushrooms are queer and taking mushrooms is a queer experience, so why shouldn’t the art be queer too?
process
I started this project by designing the bandanas first in my sketchbook, then finalizing them digitally and converting to screen half tone. I then tie dyed all of the bandanas with my former partner owen’s help. the bandanas were screen printed using acrylic based screen ink with a fabric catalyst. The bandanas were then sewn together in a grid like fashion to create the base fabric for the collection. the result of this process was two skirts, a quilt, and two pillows.
queer psychedelic mushroom thesis bandana design -- get connected!
queer psychedelic mushroom thesis bandana design -- diving in
queer psychedelic mushroom thesis bandana design -- is your heart in it?
queer psychedelic mushroom thesis bandana design -- let the mushrooms take control
queer psychedelic mushroom thesis bandana design -- rooted in earth
queer psychedelic mushroom thesis bandana design -- are you on my wavelength?
queer psychedelic mushroom thesis bandana design -- queer connections between the dandelion leaves
dyed bandanas processing in bags
shibori style tie dyed bandana
is your heart in it? bandana drying on rack
sunset colors tie dyed bandana
warm tones spiral tie dye
cool green orange and red spiral tie dyed bandana
tie dyed bandanas drying
mercury baxley with their big new screen
bandana design on screen set up to start printing
rooted in earth bandana printed and drying on rack
rooted in earth bandana drying on rack
rooted in earth bandana drying on rack
is your heart in it? bandana drying on rack
let the mushrooms take control bandana drying on rack
let the mushrooms take control bandana drying on rack
let the mushrooms take control bandana drying on rack
diving in bandana drying on rack
diving in bandana drying on rack
FINAL QUILT 1
FINAL QUILT 2
QUILT SEWING PROCESS
QUILT SEWING PROCESS
QUILT SEWING PROCESS
QUILT SEWING PROCESS
my inspiration
As a queer artist, I am drawn to fungi because of their nonbinary nature. They are neither plants or animals, but they exhibit qualities of both and neither. They entirely break the traditionally accepted binary ‘nature’ of gender as they may reproduce asexually or with as many as 23,000 different mating types.
This summer, I was able to experience psilocybin mushrooms. The first time I took a large dose, I experienced not having gender dysphoria. I truly felt that my physical body and how I see myself in my head were the same for the first time in my life. Although after the mushrooms wore off, the gender dysphoria came back, it made me realize that almost all of the dysphoria I experience is based on how other people perceive me rather than how my body actually looks.
taking magic mushrooms has also made me feel more connected to my partner and friends that i have taken them with, and even people I didn’t take them with. Some of my anxieties are less intense than they were before and i feel less lost about my place in the world. I want to encourage other queers (or anyone else that will listen) to explore their life and identity using magic mushrooms in a safe environment.
