Las Plantas-Linoleum Project

Artist statement:

As you may notice this print is called Las Plantas. This means the plants in Spanish. Spanish is a huge part of my life. Nor do I or my family are from Spain or Mexico but I have been learning Spanish for almost 3 years now. Most people just learn the language because they have to or because they just want to be fluent in a new language, But I would like to be fluent in a new culture. I would like to live in Spain at some time and I want to be able to immerse myself in Spanish culture. The tropical leaves of this print remind me of Spain and the fun and tropical feel. Spain is filled with vibrant colors and fun patterns so I thought the color blue was good for this print. Then for the extended print, I decided to use bright colors to turn into abstract dots. I like trying to make something that feels so perfect and exact into something more crazy and abstract. I think it’s because it reminds me that nothing will ever be perfect. That life will have its flaws and so should my artwork. Most of the time all my artwork always has a hidden meaning with myself. Some that are shared and some that I keep just for me. I think that sometimes we can’t always see the meaning right away or ever. Sometimes it’s fun to make people viewing your art try to guess what's going on and sometimes the artist just keeps the meaning for themselves. Either way, people never understand the real hidden meaning behind your work or the value that it gifts the artist.

There were so many materials used in this project! The linoleum was carved into something that sort of resembles a stamp. We used a tool that you can replace the blades on so that you can carve out different thicknesses of lines. The tool reminds me of a mascara tube because of it’s odd and different shape. The carving process took a long time, but once finalized I was able to get my ink ready to make some prints. I used a metal sort of board to roll my ink onto. The goal was to roll the ink onto the board until you could hear a sticky velcro sound. After that, you simply roll the ink onto the carved linoleum. Unlike a stamp, you put the paper on top of the linoleum instead of the other way around. Making sure to smooth out the paper evenly so that your print doesn’t end up smudged or gloppy in some places. I had the choice between 2 ink colors for the project, black and blue. I liked the blue probably the most but the black was also very pretty. For the multi-colored print, I mixed the black and blue to get a navy blue color and then turned it into an ombre design where it went from a light navy blue down to a midnight black. For the extended piece, I used watercolors to make abstract polka dots and then made outlined dots with a black marker for a different abstract effect. Finally, for the different material, I decided to use an old paper shopping bag. I thought I could make it into something a little less boring and a little more exciting by turning my print into a pattern and repeating it into different rows.

This project took a lot of time and a lot of effort. It went from a sketch onto a piece of paper into a bunch of different printed pieces of artwork. The process for this project was just being organized. Their were many different steps and many different materials so it was important to have it all laid out and easy to grab when needed. I think my next steps for this project would be to see if I could learn how to make a print that could be printed on clothes. It would be cool to learn how and to understand the process. I really like seeing how people make embroidered logos or words on clothes such as hoodies or tee shirts so I think doing a print would also be pretty cool. If I were to do this again as well I think I would want to do something with flowers. I really like the look of flowers and think they could be a cool print to be turned into a pattern.