Post-Exhibition Projects

Artist Statement

Following the end of year exhibition, I created four experimental pieces with a variety of materials, some new to me and some more familiar. The first project was created by creating hand drawn images, importing them into Adobe Illustrator, and finally using the XTool Laser to create my own, personalized key chains. The designs were primarily just what I wished to create in that moment, however I wanted to be cohesive and unify the design with the shape of leather to give them a more purposeful, professional look. This project incorporated of a lot of digital tools and techniques that were new to me, though after several tutorials became much easier to use and definitely exciting to get to know. In terms of revising my designs, I had to go into Adobe Illustrator to ensure that my original, hand drawn design was not only solid black and had consistent line work but also that it was the proper format to transfer into the Laserbox application. Also, when I first had the designs were first transferred onto the leather, I anticipated the standard rectangular shape to work well, however once they were done I decided to experiment with the shape, finally altering the leather to better fit the shape of the design.

The second project consisted of creating a design for a potential new sign at Hedgehog Mountain. Due to limited time and to create a more professional look, I worked digitally in Adobe Fresco to create a simple and legible that connected different aspects that characterize the location. Working digitally allowed me to work quickly and efficiently with different colors and arrangements, and though I had an original sketch as a basis to work off of, by having the ability to easily undo or redo work as well as work in different drawing layers allowed me to experiment with different fonts and variations of my original idea.

For the third project, I carved a large linoleum block with a lizard design. I primarily just thought it was a neat drawing and would translate well as a print, though the negative space, which is really what I wanted to work with, ended up being a bit busy and distracting from the main subject of the work. After carving the block, I made several high quality prints, one of which I extended with black pen. I wanted to continue the theme of utilizing the negative space, though rather than completely filling it with solid black marks like the original print, I chose to essentially draw the inverses of the main lizard to fit the negative space. Originally, I had a sketch very similar in shape and idea to the lizard in my final product, however, creating the designs in the negative space was less planned out and created more to gain some balance of black and white. Having some experience with block printing before, though never on such a large scale, definitely required a different printing process. Not only did I have to ink the block and place the paper much more quickly to ensure that the ink didn't dry, I also had to pay more attention to work efficiently with the baren and make sure that every surface was covered and would transfer.

The final piece was an independently led project, in which I wanted to continue block printing. I created two fairly small linoleum blocks, the size proving to be much more time intensive than I anticipated to create the fine details and not make mistakes while carving. For these blocks, I transferred a previous drawing of an alligator, which I used for the key chain as well, as well as another lizard drawing. For the first print, the alligator, I ended up carving away the excess space on the linoleum block, leaving just the raw shape of the subject. To add more interest and complexity, I again extended the print with black pen to create a similar format to that of the lizard, as I envisioned them potentially being displayed together. For these pieces, I planned out my designs to a much greater extent, even using transfer paper and graphite to move the design onto the linoleum block. When actually carving, I had to revise my design somewhat because it was difficult to get the level of complexity I planned for in my original drawing. However, the initially more complex design turned more simple also allowed me to play more with the background and the negative space.