Silkscreen Project 6: Thoughts

For my final project, I had a large number or ideas, inspired mainly by the works of the Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan. I wanted to work within series (as per my previous work in the class) but instead of simply repeating a simple monochromatic form, I was going to print a complicated shape utilizing the primary colours and black.



After talking with my professor, I decided to further expand this project by not only altering the internal colours of the shape, I would also alter the backgrounds to add a further element to the conversation.



Eventually though, after much more sketching and more talking with my professor, I decided to simplify this idea (which had become quite large indeed) and just print a single monochromatic form on an a variety of backgrounds.



In an effort to avoid have a very static project, I devised an organic system for choosing the background colours in which I started with either blue, red, or white and simply kept adding red, blue, or black respectively to the inks so that the colours printed would presumably change over time. Due to the unique problem of the screen drying and my haphazard almost arbitrary approach to the colour changing, the final images that resulted were not static at all but instead full of a wide range of colours, tones, and textures.

Colour Project 4: Thoughts

For my final project for Colour Photography, I wanted to do something that was an extension of my earlier work in the class but also moved in a new direction. The reason for this was that I felt much of my work this semester had suffered from my busy schedule. The combination of being very busy with extracurricular activities and my other class commitments (both in silkscreening and video) meant that I was not able to commit as much time as I wanted to (and probably needed to commit) to the class and as such I haven't been that happy with my work. Based on this, rather than trying to go back on change up a project that I had cobbled together, I decided to instead just go in a new direction, as I thought a breath of fresh air, would breathe some life into this final project, an aspect missing in my other shown work.

After considering a variety of options, I decided that to go with shooting at the abandoned cement factory near the municipal water treatment facility of my town. I originally took interest in it when I saw the factory in one of my professor's photographs, but later visited the site and became fascinated with it. Nestled in the trees off a private road and almost entirely hidden from view unless you are almost on top of it, the factory is a monolith of a bygone age. Its aged signs, rusted parts, and highly suspect structural stability construct a fascinating portrait of abandonment mixed with nostalgic past; there is an oddly melancholic beauty to the entire scene.

The shoot itself was moderately successful, shooting on medium format after a long hiatus back to 35mm was really nice and I think that the pictures, though I did not have long to spend wandering about, were well chosen and well representative of the space. I do wish that I had had more time, or an assistant but as I was on a tight schedule, a few miles trek through wind and snow and trespassing, I am still happy with what I was able to do. Being at the factory again –the last time I was there was the spring– was an interesting experience and I have a lot of ideas for stuff to shoot in the future, but for now, I just have to see where to go with what I shot

Silkscreen Project 4b: Reprint

Circles and Bars II

Much in the same way that I felt unhappy with my previous version of my 2-colour print, I also decided to reprint and improve my 3-colour project.

The only real changes I made were to the inks, the colours of which I darkened slightly and the consistency of which I thinned down. Unfortunately, while I did find myself having more success that previously, I do not view this project as anything more than a study and a exercise in technical reproduction.

Thanksgiving Break

For my Thanksgiving break, I decided to not go anywhere but instead work on what I saw as uncompleted or unsuccessful projects. During this time I reprinted both my third project (the 2-colour print) and my fourth project (the 3-colour print). I also logged a large number or hours doing cosmetic surgery on my fifth project (the poster project). Many of the posters were missing elements/had miss-printings which I decided to go back through all 46 of which I liked best and touch up by hand.

All-in-all I must have spent approximately 6-10 hours a day in the silkscreen studio over the break, but I really got a lot of practice in on the finer points of screen printing and I think it was well worth the effort.

Silkscreen Project 3b: Reprint

As I was unhappy with my previous attempt with this project, I decided to reprint the entire thing with a few changes made.

The main change is I decided to print the positive forms of the shapes rather than their negatives (which had actually been my original idea). I felt this allowed for a more interesting and successful dialogue between the elements. I also chose to change the colours slightly in an attempt to print them more cleanly and successfully.

Silkscreen Project 5: Poster

For this project, we were tasked as a class to each create a run of posters for a real event, specifically fifty in number, that were to be hung around campus. As a member of the students administrators for Spiral, Oberlin's genre fiction literary magazine, I decided to make posters for their spring semester general interest meeting.

In the design of my poster, I wanted to create something that was subdued in character; that evoked a more refined sensibility (as Spiral is often seen as a less serious, less professional magazine). Because of this I chose the greys, white, and black, as I felt they are often seen as clean colours; they draw attention but are not loud. I chose to print the background as I did and the specific fonts for a related reason. The uneven edges of the background I felt looked somewhat like a page torn from a notebook and the fonts were chosen as I felt they were somewhat reminiscent of those of a typewriter, what has become one of the most iconic symbols of highbrow literaryism.

Finally, in an quasi-ironic send off to all the ideals I tried to cultivate with the rest of the poster and to emphasise the idea that Spiral is not your generic literary magazine, I created the font-art word at the top, which I though added a sense of quirky dynamism to the otherwise rigid, mostly static piece.

Colour Project 3: Staged Narrative

Shift in Focus

At one point in your life sitting half-naked in a hallway is your morning ritual, but fast forward a few years and for many that is replaced by the newspaper. These images explore various habits we develop in college and what they often will become when we leave and start out real 'professional lives,' the juxtaposition of the two speaks to what we find important at a certain time and how our focus changes.