America 2001-2009

This project began as a relief print for a printmaking class. It is a linoleum cutout of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. My objective for the project was to create a print based on the word "nominal." I applied that to contemporary politics, and used hierarchy to emphasize whom was being nominalized. These particular prints were test prints for my final project, done on a really thin, fabric-like paper. After a while of them just laying around, I laid them out to see what kind of shape I could get out of them, as I could not think of anything else to do with them. They were the perfect dimensions for a flag. I painted them with the appropriate water colors to make it more obviously a flag and months later finally sewed them together, to give it more color and texture as well as to emphasize, once again, the flag idea. I then cut two 2 x 4's in half longways and built a frame, spray-painted white on which to attach my "flag," which I did with a staple gun. I am extraordinarily pleased with this project. It also reminds me, due to the repetition, of my "37 Fountains," an obvious Warhol influence, though I'm unawares if Warhol ever segued into politics.

America 2001-2009
Mixed Media
36" x 24"

America (detail)

America (detail)

America (detail)

Serigraphy

I guess I'll keep with my prints for now. These are the three Screen Prints I did this semester. They are in the ocean vein as my first two.

"Waterfall"
8" x 6"

This one is based off a waterfall picture that my brother took while he was in Hawaii. He spent this semester in Hawaii and took a bunch of beautiful pictures. I found one I liked of a waterfall, traced it, and reduced it to four colors: white, light green, evergreen, and cerulean blue. I then copied each color's outline onto a screen and painted each in with screen filler. It was pretty time consuming, but I really like the effect that the hand-done screen filler gave to the crab and wanted to repeat that. It was the fourth print that I did over the course of the semester.

"Crab"
7" x 5"

This is pretty much what's showing. A three color screen print, hand-done screen filler like the waterfall. It was fun to do, and turned out fairly well.

"Intergalactic Squid I"
9" x 14"

I tried something really different with this one in terms of my theme. Instead of visually depicting some ocean-related thing, I looked at a number of old movie posters and Japanese movie posters related to monsters. I collected images from the web and assembled them into my poster. I then deduced it down to 4 colors and the background and transferred those individually on my screen and printed them, in order, cerulean blue, yellow, evergreen, and red. It didn't turn out as perfect as I would have liked and would maybe try it again at some point with more detail, but I think it still works and recalls the posters that I used as inspiration.

Two Relief Prints

The first things I'm posting are going to be a couple of relief prints that I completed this past semester. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. And they match surprisingly well. So I guess that's good too.
But both are two color relief prints, the blue was printed first on both, followed by the oranges. Both also juxtapose my semester, the jellyfish was the first print I did this semester, and the whale was the last. When the semester began, I decided to do an ocean theme throughout all of prints. I kept up with it surprisingly well and I think it resulted in a couple really nice pieces.

"Moby Dick"
10" x 8"

This is obviously inspired by Moby Dick, I knew I had wanted to do one inspired by the book. It's on my extensive list of favorite books and there is inspirational imagery throughout.

"Jellyfish"
6" x 12"

Jellyfish is inspired by a tattoo I designed for a friend about three years ago. I redrew it and cropped it and printed the blue. It looked too plain after printing and decided to add the orange to add more depth, which I think I've accomplished.