Emily A.

Candyman Vs Veggieman

Artist Statement

                I created a printing block to make a portfolio. The theme was conflict and I chose to do obesity and the internal struggle between making the right choices. I started by making a mind map to decide which conflict I wanted to draw out. I drew out some thumbnails of the ideas I had for each conflict I came up with and I liked the obesity ideas best. This part was important because I could figure out which design I could add a lot of texture and make it interesting. It’s hard to get the correct thickness when I started carving. I just had to have patience so I didn’t mess up.

                My conflict is obesity because to choose the right choices is hard sometimes but it’s important to keep a healthy body and a lot of people underestimate the importance of having a healthy body. It’s important to me because my family and I have always had trouble with weight so eating right is a big part of my life to make sure my family’s health problems don’t get passed down to me. Veggie man and Candy man really emphasize this idea. I made this the focus because in my mind that’s how the struggle is when I make food choices.

                To create variety, I tried to use a lot of different thicknesses to my lines. This brings life to my piece and if all the lines were the same then the piece would be boring and kind of one dimensional. To create the illusion of shadow, I added little lines that brought a little form to the objects. These also served as separating objects from one another. These really brought the characters out because the contrast of them to the rest of the piece with their difference in lines made them have emphasis.

                I thought this project was kind of fun but frustrating at the same time. I enjoyed planning and carving. However doing the actual prints was tough. I’m a perfectionist so when a print wasn’t perfect it would make me angry. Next time, I don’t think I’ll use as many small lines because the ink covers it too easily. I like the citrus clouds the best because it really stands out from the sky and I spent a lot of time on it so I’m glad they turned out as well as they did.