William Morris was a historian, poet, and a craftsman most famously known for his textile designs that see the natural world perfected in intricate, symmetrical patterns. He criticised industrial capitalism and had strong beliefs about art being defined as the expression of pleasure in labour. (McAlister, 63) His Pre-Raphaelite poetry and fine art making was escapist in its nature, and he found history to be the solution to the obsession with progress,(McAlister, 7) returning to medievalist ideologies surrounding the value of craft (N.M Wells, 12). 

My exploration of craft began when I unravelled my large scale canvas, and braided the frayed material to make it become like a tapestry. The laborious process was exhausting and painful as I plucked at each individual thread with a pair of tweezers. I wanted to think of the canvas as a metaphor for a psychological space and what it would mean to physically unravel it and then seal it off again. This act of being the one to unravel the canvas or "mind" and then attempting to seal it again, was an exercise of taking control or gaining control over one's own mind. I also recognised that once the canvas had been unravelled like that it could never be returned to its original state, but it could be held together in a different way, the same way the mind, once it has experienced an intense psychological experience cannot go back to how it was before. Since this work is an extension of me, or of my mind, the fact that I am the one to close off the ends was an acknowledgement that I am the only person who can gain control of my anxiety.

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While I have been looking at patterns as a way of visually describing patterns in anxiety, the physical process of braiding and repeating a task over and over again, and painting the patterns by hand was me literally performing the pattern. It would be a lot easier for me to have used a stencil or some kind of printing aid to paint my patterns, or buy a piece of a rug that was already braided and ready to attach, but I believe there is something therapeutic and satisfying that comes from painting every flower and closing off each braid myself. I am choosing to maintain that quality myself, rather than being dependant on a piece of technology or mechanism to aid me. This is the fundamental idea that Morris was thinking about; that labour and fulfilment in art should come together to achieve a higher quality of work, and redefine the meaning of fine art. I see a connection to mental health and labour in art and craft because creating something from start to finish is the ultimate exercise of control, which is intrinsic to understanding anxiety. Wells highlights that the struggle in the labour of creating something was an essential contributor to the craftsmen's sense of self worth, as he "gained control over his materials tools and time". (Wells, 63) This idea of controlling materials and tools and time is something that is becoming lost with all of the overwhelming developments and new technologies that are dominating the world today, and contributing to a collective anxiety. I therefore have made the comparison between the industrial capitalism that Morris rejected and digital age that exists now. The overuse of technology is changing what it means to be an artist, as it also a contributor to anxiety levels in our generation.  

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Upon trying to describe my own experience with intense anxiety and derealisation, I have appropriated one of Morris's designs and used it in my current painting, and I understand that my work now takes on his history, so thought it important to make these connections.