For Graphic Design there are 2 things you need: purpose and tools. There can be many purposes including, but not at all limited to: expression of an idea, better sales for a company, a strong identity, providing information, lending context to images or to a project, directing thoughts or actions, and organizing content. Tools are many and varied, also including but not limited to these: color, pattern, movement, layout, concept, sketching, ideas, photography, text, grids, planning, research, movement, hierarchy, talent, creativity, inspiration, repetition, balance and texture. So for the specific poster, I chose from each category. Purpose: to provide context Tools: text & texture The next layer is that I chose photos with different textures to illustrate one of the tools. The word "contexture" reminded me of the "before & after" category on wheel of fortune, which inspired the type treatment, or text of the poster. As yet, I have not provided the context. I purposefully kept it off the actual poster to prove the point that without context it's just a pretty picture or design, but not successful in delivering the message, or fulfilling the goal that might exist. So the the context: I chose textures from images that I have taken both in the Bmore/MD/DC area, and also in Mexico City where I am currently living. About half are photos I took while living in MD and about half are taken here in Mexico, but without that information, one would likely not realize that as the case. Without context, any of the photos could be from either location. When you boil it down, there are always the same visual elements in any environment, though perhaps they are arranged quite differently, providing the context for the specific place/city where you find them. Textures and patterns and words are arranged in a uniquely Mexican way. When I walk out the door, I know I'm in Mexico City. The letters on signs are arranged into Spanish words, walls are brightly colored in every hue you can imagine, traffic is crammed bumper to bumper in the narrow lanes, bright green VW Beetle taxis swarm the streets. Cement mixers are decorated with highly colorful, stylized snakes and flowers. In Maryland there is space; lots of space and trees and nature, and cars speed down country roads. In Baltimore City, there are fewer trees than the countryside, but there aren't as many people bustling to and fro as in Mexico. Traffic might be tight, but not crammed. Signs are in English, colors are more subdued. Cement mixers are gray or silver or white, or some other reasonable solid shade. In each different environment, there are visual cues that make them unique, but if one looks closer, and closer, and closer still, the similarities can stand out among the differences.

Size: Approx 12” long, 9 ?” wide. This one-of-a-kind decorative Frida Kahlo art doll is my most complex to date. She is essentially three dolls in one: Frida, Diego, and a mother Earth goddess. This Frida was inspired by Kahlo’s 1949 painting “The Love Embrace of the Universe, The Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me, and Senor Xolotl.” The doll took me several weeks of work and is painstakingly detailed. As in the painting, the Earth goddess has dreaded hair (each dread individually hand-twisted). She is covered by cacti and a tree, each of which I have beaded and embroidered differently (one includes peridot chunks and whiteheart beads ). Frida appears in a beaded blouse and ruffled skirt with her dog Senor Xolotl curled at her feat. She has a bloody gash in her neck and is weeping milky tears (to mirror the drop of milk dripping from the Earth’s nipple and the jagged ravine cutting across her neck and chest. ). Diego appears as a baby cradled in Frida’s arms. He is naked, with a third eye on his forehead, and a flamelike blossom in his hands. This is the first time I have represented Diego in doll form. Each figure and cactus was individually crafted and decorated and hand-sewn to the Earth Goddess. For embroidery fans, a fun fact: the goddess and Diego both have French knot nipples :) According to Hayden Herrera, this painting “celebrates the final resolution of the Riveras’ marriage. Here Frida is the earth mother/Madonna nurturing the baby she could never have—her ‘Dieguito.’ Now she does not need to clasp him tightly, for the couple’s union is sustained by a series of love embraces that roots them in the Mexican earth.” (Frida Kahlo: The Paintings, 175, 178). Herrera notes Frida’s description of Diego: “Diego is an immense baby with an amiable face and a slightly sad glance … seeing him nude, you immediately think of a boy frog standing on his hind legs” (178). Please visit my Etsy shop: snapdragon13.etsy.com to check out my handmade Frida Kahlo dolls! These Frida dolls are my original design, inspired by Frida’s many self-portraits and paintings, as well as some photographs taken of the artist (and some are just inspired by the artist herself!). Each doll is hand-sewn out of soft ultrasuede, hand-beaded using an applique technique, and takes several days to create. The dolls are lightweight and multi-textured, glittery, soft, and colorful! The back of each doll is undecorated.