
A Captain’s Vanity
Since the beginnings of humanity, wardrobe has been used to provide clues about a person or character and the setting to which they belong. I explore the use of wardrobe and personal effects as a visual story-telling device and a method of indirect characterization.
A Captain’s Vanity is a glimpse into the life of Kat Maddigan, a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) character, through the lens of her dressing area. As captain of the small but speedy vessel, The Stormcrow, and its crew of misfits, miscreants, and vagabonds, Kat is on a quest to avenge the recent death of her uncle, but she quickly learns that there is more than just blood in the water. Kat and her inner circle of scalawags, known as the Damaged Goods, played by Elizabeth Bradley, Austin Dawes, Justus Dawes, and Ethan Scott, adventure across treacherous waters and extraordinary lands of the world of Angshara, each on (often conflicting) quests of their own.
Kat’s adventure in Austin Dawes’ largely home-brew campaign Tremulous White, existing within the TTRPG systems of Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition, and later Pathfinder, 2nd Edition, is highly dependent on the imagination and improvisation of the players, as well as luck of the dice. Like the dice we roll, each character is multifaceted, and both their wardrobe and disposition evolve with the progression of the campaign.
The collection features a variety of media including silver, brass, copper, nickel, seashell, glass, semiprecious stones, leather, fabric, wood, repurposed furniture, and found objects. Nearly every single hand-crafted piece correlates to an in-game item or event, giving physicality to objects that previously existed only in imagination.