Title: At the Hands of Greed
Medium: Ink on Paper Size: 22.86 x 30.48 cm November 2015 Exhibition Text:
For my Block Print, I wanted to use German Expressionism to show the obsession of greed. In my piece, two people can be seen trying to grab money bags off of a tree that looks like it's dying. My piece was influenced by the work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and so I wanted my piece to have a similar look to his. |
Artistic Inspiration:
Process:
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1.) Before I could began carving, I had to find a way to recreate the sketch I chose onto my block, so I shaded the back of my sketch as dark as I could.
2.) I then put my sketch on top of my block, in which I then proceeded to trace it. 3.) After my sketch was traced onto my block, I began to carve away from the bottom to the top. I carved out the bigger spaces first since they were the easiest. 4.) I continued to carve away the outside of my image, and when I was finished with that I carved out the details that were inside as much as I could. 5.) After I finished carving, I started making my prints. I grabbed a metal sheet, an ink roller, ink, and a small spatula. 6.) I put three to four spreads of ink onto the sheet and rolled it with the roller. After that, I rolled the ink onto my block. 7.) As soon as I rolled the ink onto my block, I grabbed two pieces of paper and put them on top of my block and used a bamboo baren to put the ink onto the paper. 8.) My first print didn't come out the way I wanted, as so I went back to carving some more. 9.) Again I went to go make more prints, but the ink kept filling in the details I carved out. 10.) I repeated this process until I got to about my fourth print. After that, I just continued to make prints. 11.) I would make a print, clean it a bit, and make another print. 12.) Finally after about eight prints or so, I had a clean print. |
Sketches:
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These were my sketches for my block print. The theme was obsession, and I thought of topics people were obsessed with or with what I'm obsessed with. I came up with loneliness, evil with beauty, and greed.
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Meaning Behind My Piece:
My piece is suppose to represent the obsession: greed. My block has people grabbing at money bags that are attached to a dying tree, trying to keep it for themselves. The people keep grabbing the money bags, making the once lively tree die. I wanted the tree to represent the people who are losing their money to greedy people like the ones by the tree. As the money continues to be taken, the tree (person) begins to grow weak and unable to support itself, leading it to wither away and die.
Reflection:
Completing the piece took longer than I expected, making it harder to focus on other projects that needed to be done. I wasn't able to come up with ideas for sketches right away, making me behind everyone else. I also had a difficult time carving since I had lots of small spaces and corners that needed to be carved, and I had to keep carving in deeper since the ink I rolled on my block would go inside the carved, detailed spaces. The more I tried to carve though, the more my piece began to look a way I didn't want it to look. At first I thought the entire process of this project would go smoothly, or at least easily, but that wasn't the case for me.