Escaping Oneself
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InspirationThe theme for our block print project was obsession and from that I pulled the aspect of our mind and the ways that our minds control us in order to be obsessed. German expressionism contains a lot of block prints so I automatically pulled from that art movement. Once I began to peek into the movement, I became inspired by Kathe Kollwitz. The first piece that inspired me was her Self-Portrait due to the pain and hurt and the struggles that shes been through just through the wrinkles in the face and the bags under her eyes. Another piece that inspired me was The People by Kathe Kollwitz due to the faces in the background and also in the gut of the woman in the middle which to me represent the conscience of the mind.
MeaningWhen I think of obsession, I think of being reliant heavily on something to keep happy or sane. Obsession is like being trapped in ones own state of mind, continuously trapped within yourself. The real you screams and kicks to get out but never truly finds its way out because it is stuck inside of this idea that you need this one thing to be happy and essentially to live your life and be normal in society.
Planning SketchesAfter finding my inspiration and feeding off of Kathe Kollwitz Self-Portrait, I came up with the idea of showing a skull in the middle of my piece to represent the mental struggles of obsession. Obsession is something that preoccupies the mind and intrudes which is where The People comes into play. I plan on putting the faces of the people inside the forehead of the skull to represent conscience and voices of the mind that control it. My first idea was to have the devils face in the center of the two everyday people but as I finished up that sketch, and began another with three unknown everyday faces. I decided not to go with the devil face in the middle because I felt that it was too straight forward and I wanted to provoke curiosity in my piece.
ExperimentationI used a thick black sharpie to shade in the places where I would NOT carve. The space that I left white, would be the spots that I WOULD carve out to create a 3-D effect. I decided to do this in order to see if my sketches were able to depict what I wanted one I carved into the linoleum.
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CarvingThings started out a bit rough, I had never carved on material such as Linoleum and I wasn't sure how to hold the tools or use them in correct way. I had to hold the tools on an angle for them to work the best but I didn't want them to carve too deep at the same time. After carving the eyes, nose, and teeth on the skull, I felt really good about what I had done. Then i began on the more detailed parts of the piece such as the faces within the skull. The detailed parts were very had for me, none of the tools were as precise as I wanted them to be but I made use of them. I messed up on a few things so I had to exaggerate them to make clean lines. Next, I moved onto the background. I liked the idea of having movement coming away from the skull so I began to carve away. I wasn't sure how the background would turn out but I liked the way it looked at the end.
PrintingFirst I laid down newspaper and then I took ink and laid it across the middle as evenly as I could across the metal pan. Taking the roller, I smoothed out the ink across the pan until I was sure that the ink was evenly spread on my roller. I had to make sure that it was evenly spread on the roller so that when I rolled onto the linoleum, I got an even coating of ink. Next, I rolled the ink onto the linoleum and set it facing up on a piece of paper. I set it on top of paper that was the same size as the one that I was going to print on so that I could know exactly where I wanted my print to be. I then took a sheet of paper that I was going to print on and lined up the edges with the original sheet that I had set on the table. I then laid another sheet on top of that one and used a smoother tool while I applied pressure. I then removed both sheets of paper to reveal my print and let it dry.
Reprinting my pieceThe piece that I made did not print as well, so I had to go back and make deeper cuts into the background and also in the faces within the skull. I printed at least 20 pieces and still, my print would not come out the way that I wanted, so I carved even deeper. I got a little discouraged but still, I had to continue. At first I tried to incorporate the lines from the background into my piece, but after printing about 10 more times, I realized that I kept getting that gritty affect which is when I then carved the background out completely, leaving only the skull in the middle to be visible.
ReflectionLooking back on this piece, I wouldn't have changed anything. I did struggle at times with getting the right print (I made at least 30 prints before getting it right), but I wouldn't have changed a thing. I wouldn't change it because although it was a frustrating experience, it was a learning experience. A few of those struggles were getting the details to show accurately as well as carving them correctly. Things that I succeeded at were staying positive and getting the overall project done. If I would've just settled with a bad print, I wouldn't have liked my piece as much as I do.
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