Hi there. I hope everyone had a nice vacation. I have been neglecting this blog for a while, either because I've been busy or lazy, and for that I apologize. This new blog post is one that's a month over due and that is my Silhouette Screen print.
For this piece, we had the choice to paint a non-objective piece or make a silhouette/design playing card screen print. I chose to make a screen print. For this piece, we the topic we were given was to visually convey a sense of helplessness. From there we were free to interpreted that anyway we wanted to in order to create a theme.
From the there; the theme I came up with was a visual interpretation of free will v.s fate. The puppet was made to represent people while hands were made to represent an unseen entity possibly controlling us, like puppets. People could argue in circles over this forever so I'll keep it short. The big question tied to this piece was how much does free will really count for? Are we born because of luck or by design? Are we here to fill a purpose or are we here to pass the time until our death? Do we control where our life goes or are we being lead like puppets? I know, deep stuff. To add greater emphasis to my point, the background was a stage with a red curtain. Life is a stage and we're the players (I think that's the quote).
The process was very interesting, but harder than it looks. Not enough ink and it wont print clearly. If your screen isn't secured well enough, the print will smudge. There is a whole technique to this that could mess with your work if not done right. I made a series of 12 prints using the Chinese Collage method of gluing two pieces of paper together and printing on top of them. Out of the 12 that I made, unfortunately (the ones above) only one of them came out perfect. The other three do have their flaws but are the best of the other 8.
I feel that even though some of them didn't come out as nicely as I wanted, I think it was a very nice try for my first attempt at screen printing.
