Carnival

So you've heard of Mardi Gras, right? You know, chicks flashing their boobs for beads, gaudy costumes, lots of drinking, it's a good party. Well wouldn't you know that New Orleans isn't the only city that likes to party? Caribbean cultures have their own shindig that they throw down once a year, and it's been around a hell of a lot longer than dinky little old Mardi Gras. In fact, it doesn't last one day, it can last up to a whole week. How people go about celebrating carnival varies from culture to culture, but it involves a lot of dancing, elaborate costumes, constant music, and amazing food. Like Mardi Gras, Carnival was started by Catholic Italians who wanted to have a last hurrah before Ash Wednesday kicked off Lent (we know this day as Fat Tuesday) and the notion of a blowout party was so popular that the French and Spanish caught on fast. When conquests began in the Caribbean, conquistadors brought with them not only Catholicism and disease and warfare, but CARNIVAL TOO! Eventually the Caribbean natives, being a go-with-the-flow kind of people, began to accept the new traditions that Europeans brought to the table, but continued to practice their own traditions under the table as well. This created a medley of culture and ultimately created the Caribbean culture we know today. (for example, Santeria!) Cool right? So Carnival goes on all over the Caribbean and basically it kicks off a Catholic practice with motifs from their ancient cultures. 

What I'm trying to get at here is the costumes. They're HUGE, they're elaborate and ornate, and they stand as individual pieces of art. Especially the headdresses. Across Pre-Columbian cultures, headdresses were badass - the Mayans, Aztecs, Inca and Taino all went all out when it came to feather headdresses. 

Ancient people would spend their lives hunting down ornate feathers and creating headdresses. Feathers are precious to Caribbean people. I'm going to be looking at feathers in that precious material manner, not so much with the approach that it's just something that came off a bird and therefore it's cool to turn it into art. And with how long it's taking for the feathers I special ordered to arrive... it's starting to look like they're about to mean a lot to me when they finally arrive. I'm thinking about fashioning a headdress as one of my big pieces. Ambitious.... but possible.