This Short Week and Break

Over break I really started to reconsider my thesis and the work that I had completed.  I was really excited about the prints that I was doing first semester, but after taking a break from them and looking at them all together, I realized they really didn’t relate to my idea of losing childhood memories at all.  This was a huge realization for me and somewhat disappointing.  I decided that I had been more excited about the printmaking processes and therefore disregarded the importance of my topic.  So over break I deeply considered how I was going to make images that relate directly to my thesis and started to think more along the lines of building blocks.  Wooden blocks are something that I played without all throughout my childhood and relate directly to my relationship with my sister and my memories of play.  I then started to actually play with the blocks; I organized them in different constructions and used different lighting to see what would be the most dramatic and appropriate image.  I took a ton of pictures over break and I think many of them are successful.  They really started to look like mysterious buildings with secret spaces and undiscovered corners.  I liked that they were so dramatic and I think that they show a sense of loss and solitude, which I want to begin to display.

After thinking about the actual image for a long time, I began to think about the layout of my final presentation.  I began to imagine a huge image of building blocks split up in to different woodcuts.  They would be displayed in different frames (which I have just found at Treasure Mart, my ultimate favorite store) close enough together that you could see the image when you backed away, but the spaces in-between would again address the issue of loss.  I am excited about this new idea and now I am trying to decide how many prints I can feasibly create by the end of the semester and my show!

(20 hours over break)

(4 hours this week so far)

Below, I am showing the first image that I am focusing on and I feel that the picture itself is very successful.  It is ominous yet sad and I have begun to break it down into different pieces.  I have sketched the images and I hope that I will be able to transfer these to a woodblock soon and begin to cut. 

I have also decided to focus more on the image before I lay it down on the woodblock and hopefully this will make me more successful.  I am excited about this week and I can’t wait to get carving!