Linoleum Prints

Essential Question

How do artists create works of art that effectively communicate?

How do texture and repetition help create movement and unity in a print?

Reflection on Work

I chose to communicate the harmful industry of pesticide use in agriculture. I chose this issue because every year, my mom loves growing Dahlias in our garden. When they grow, we have many monarch butterflies that rest on the flowers, use them as a food source, and help bees to pollinate them. They are one of my favorite parts about the garden, and it brings me joy to see them every year. We refrain from using pesticides so that it does not harm them. However, on farms all over the world, pesticides are in high use to prevent bugs from eating the plants/flowers. This, however, is very harmful to butterflies who are killed by the pesticides. I feel as if this is an important issue to communicate because butterflies are incredibly important to our environment—by pollinating, they help gardens grow and produce new seeds. Besides that, they are incredibly beautiful creatures, and the fact that they are not endangered is very saddening. 

Artists can make works of art that effectively communicate in many different ways. I think it certainly depends on the style, but particularly in printmaking, it is important to have clear, meaningful imagery, a balanced piece, and well handled background. To me, imagery is the most important, and it is necessary to think about what each piece of your composition contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. It must tell a story that not only everybody else understands where you are coming from, but you yourself understand. Every object and pattern must be particular and well thought out, which is tedious at times, but not only helps to make the work more interesting, but it may make it much more meaningful to yourself. I think I was pretty successful in communicating my concern, and I think I was able to do this by making sure the plane was very clear, and the border around the butterflies was very clear and made them stand out. To me, at least, the piece is not confusing to look at, and the dots coming from the plane indicate that something is being scattered over the field, and context clues could lead one to know that they are pesticides, based on the flowers and butterflies in the foreground. Although a peaceful scene, I think that the sharper lines in the background help to communicate the subtle danger to the piece, and how although one may think they are harmless, they are in fact not. 

I used cross hatching to imply a border, and I feel like it unifies both sides of the painting while also adding a sense of balance. It could also imply webs, such as pesticides are used to get rid of spider mites sometimes which create webs on the plants. I also carried the dots representing the particles of pesticide through the painting from top to bottom which creates unity by repeating the pattern. By outlining almost everything with a thick white line, it helps balance the piece while also unifying the objects. If I were to do this again, I think it might make the other lines (sharper ones) and swirls more consistent throughout the piece, but also more well thought out. Although I do like them, still, I think they could be more balanced and planned through. 

The most challenging part of this project for me was the background, as I am not very skilled in creating backgrounds. Most of my previous pieces have included solid backgrounds, or very brief backgrounds, and being forced to think on how to fill the space here, it was very tricky. I think, in the end, it works out. I think the border does a good job of filling the space and creating a sense of unity, and so do the continued patterns of dots and lines throughout. The bigger flowers and leaves in the forefront also do a good job of filling space, along with the plane at the top. Overall, I am very happy with this piece, and it was a lot of fun to make! I have never done printmaking before, but hope to return to it.