Feathers and dragons

Feathers are light, delicate and fragile. You can easily blow them away and damage them, if you want to. Dragons are strong and powerful. They can become rather dangerous, at least as long as nobody stops them. Children are sometimes a bit like feathers and sometimes a bit like little dragons. They can change their behaviour very quickly - one moment they are sweet and innocent and another moment they are stubborn and recalcitrant. As long as there is a balance, this does not matter very much. But as soon as the feathery quality or dragonlike behaviour becomes too strong, there is a problem. Then the adults should take action. A too dragonlike behaviour has to be stopped before it escalates. And a too feathery child should be helped to get more fighting spirit. Whenever this -for whatever reason- does not happen, the problem that is called bullying can become a trauma. In my case this is what happened.

I was such a feathery child, not able to withstand the dragonlike behaviour of my classmates.


With the project feathers and dragons I want to demonstratie how much impact being bullied for a long time can have. I go back in time and write about what I experienced and felt when I was a child. After that I have a critical and honest look at myself and I discover how the bullying  has changed me. I perceive which animal qualities I have and I realize that the outer dragon has been exchanged for an inner dragon. I observe how destructive this dragon is and I am determined to conquer this dragon. How I do this becomes clear during this project. And then vulnerability changes into strength.

feather vase with machine embroidered feathers