Block Prints

What social issue is represented in your print?  How did you use symbolism and visual imagery to represent your concept? The social issue I did was womens rights coupled with more of a focus on self love and self confidence. My art piece was of a beautiful woman with a big beautiful afro, staring contently out. The fact that I chose to depict her alone is a lot different from some of the womens rights pieces I've seen where they want women to lean on eachother and fight for the cause that way. But when focusing on the Carefree Black Girls (CBG) Movement, it is more about being confident enough within yourself that you are able to radiate that positivity to fuel your own movement. The caption reads "Carefree and Loved" which I really think sums up what the movement is all about, being able to love yourself and not to stress about the pointless things in the world but to instead focus on the light, and the good parts, which is why I had the sun rays radiating from her image.  -Overall, how successful were you at communicating a message regarding your social issue to a viewer? I think that I ended up making a very powerful print. It's very visually gripping which makes people want to look into the story more and read into the movement, which I think is great. You can definititely get a sense of empowerment just by looking at the art and seeing just how strong she looks and confident. And the caption matches seemlessly. All in all, this is one of my proudest works.  -Did you struggle at all during this process? How did you persevere through challenges? As with anything, yes I did struggle. The biggest difficulty is making sure I didn't use too much paint. I did a lot of intricate details on the lettering and the shirt that the girl in my photo was wearing and with too much paint it got into the tiny grooves and wouldn't come out on the print. However, I did persevere, not only with finding different ways to use less paint, but also to incorporate different mediums like marker to really bring those spaces to life a little differently.  -Describe your altered print.What materials did you use and why?  How did these materials emphasize the content of your work? For one of my altered prints I simply used two different types of paint on a colored piece of paper and I developed the art a little differently. When I used the yellow paint, and printed regularly, a lot of the paint didn't come off, and you could barely make out the picture. In a last stich effort to make sure this was not all for nought, I decided to print on top of that with red paint, but this time, to use the smoothing brush instead. When I pealed away the second print, I was amazed and thrilled by what I saw. Because it was such a messy connection from the red paint to the paper, some texture appeared where there previously was none. And where some of the features on the yellow showed up, it gave the pieee an almost three dimensional feel, acting as the underneath highlights, really making it look like those rays were actually radiating off of her. It was absolutely beautiful. The other altered print I was working on was yellow onto green paper. It is still in the works, but I am outlining it in black marker and then adding my own added touches with other marker. Hopefully it turns out beautiful. I thought it would be cool to add some beautiful things that I didn't have time to add to the actual cutting out of my block print, like flowers and more words.

Wallpaper Panel Portrait

-Explain the content of your artwork. What mood were you trying to set, if any? What is your relationship with the person you chose to represent in your artwork? How did you use symbolism to represent your chosen person and/or convey a mood?

I did the singer Solange, and my relationship to her is that she is one of my favorite people ever. She's really the unofficial ambassador of the carefree black girl movement. She is a gorgeous, driven, powerful figure. Because of that, I decided to depict her through my artwork as a strong, lithe, queen. So that's why I dressed her like that.I did the water in the background and around the borders is signify her voice. If you ever here Solange sing, it's like waves, liquid and crashing with each swell of music. It's absolutely breathtaking. And the flowers with her lyrics stand for her career blossoming, which it really has been. 

-Describe your process. What materials did you use? If you were to do this project again what would you do the same and what would you do differently?

I used colored tissue paper and a glue/water mixture for the flowers and for some definition to the waves. It gave the flowers a nice three dimensional look and made it possible to make the colors blend and bleed the way I wanted them to. I used a black and white photo of Solange, and drew in more ringlets in her fro with pastels. I though it added something to cool to her otherwise two toned photo, and it also gave me the opportunity to use one of my favorite art materials. Most of the bacground is paint, with a variety of different strokes. For instance, most of the background is long brush strokes with full paint, but around the face and hair of my person, I used a dry brush method to give her the different colored halos, so she would look that much more regal. I used that same method to add more colors to the waves. I also to add texture at the shirt area that I had created along with the neck, so I found this soft fuzzy brown string. I glued it on to the body, and then painted over the fur with some very diluted ink. It just gave the piece because it looked very worn like an old sweater and made the piece more believable. I don't think I would really change much, because i am very happy with how it came out. Maybe I would do the tissue paper flowers last so that I wouldn't be so worried about possibly dropping other materials on it, but I really enjoyed what came out of it. 

-Overall, how successful is your final composition

I think it really works. With how neutral the background is, the face really stands out and remains the focal point even with all the other things going on in the piece. It really looks like something that would go on her website or even her next album cover. I am very proud of the piece I made, and I really think I captured her essence. Maybe one day she'll see it!