)’mara | Pantone Design Competition

My Entry To The 2021 Pantone Color Design Competition

History repeats itself.....

My inspiration for my line that I created is the poem written in 1869, by Kathleen O’Mara and reprinted during 1919 Pandemic.

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And people stayed at home.

And read books

And listened

And they rested

And did exercises

And made art and played

And learned new ways of being

And stopped and listened

More deeply

Someone meditated, someone prayed

Someone met their shadow

And people began to think differently And people healed.

And in the absence of people who

Lived in ignorant ways

Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,

The earth also began to heal

And when the danger ended and

People found themselves

They grieved for the dead

And made new choices

And dreamed of new visions

And created new ways of living

And completely healed the earth Just as they were healed

Design Process

O’mara’s poem spoke to me in the blinding colors that is to exist and breathe, and be human. From the dirt under our fingernails to the reaping colors of the sunset we reach our hands up to.

I wanted these pieces to be imperfect, with brush strokes and stitched embroidery details to small illustrations of hands and effervescent words.

Design One

faith healer

Design Two

and they created new ways of living

Design Three

absence

O’mara

O’mara

O’mara