Zoë Rose V.

Los Dias de los Muertos

            My assignment for this project was to create “conflict”. My process before the project was to brainstorm some ideas to create the images I wanted to incorporate. After I found my idea, Day of the Dead I drew up a sketch. I came up with “Day of the Dead” because my family and I have always had an interest in it. The steps into creating my conflict piece was first I drew out my theme, got tissue paper and copied my drawing onto the tissue paper. After that we received a original flat surface linoleum block, from there we placed the tissue paper on the block and traced out drawing with a fine point permanent sharpie, so it bled through on to the linoleum block, and then we start carving. For me the most difficult was the planning and figuring out what my conflict was. The easiest of the process was carving out the block.

            My piece represents Day of the Dead, and the Mayans, back then the Mayans would have rituals honoring deceased ancestors. In my relief print there is a girl with a skeleton-like face, and she’s looking up to the Mayan calendar. The main theme for my relief print is about not the sadness of losing someone you love, it’s about remembering and rejoicing. I used positive and negative space to separate the girl and the calendar, this added emphasis to the important things of my piece. Also the skeleton-like girl and the Mayan calendar are the main idea because they grab your attention and it moves you throughout my print.

            When I was doing my project I made sure that it was something different, and more unique. Adding the roses was a decision that I thought was perfect because it emphasized spanish women who wore them. By adding the roses it gave the print a better vibe, because you would have to get more in depth with Day of the Dead and The Mayans to actually catch that conflict.

            I really enjoyed this project because I got to incorporate something that was in my interest, and I stepped outside my creativity box and got pushed into doing something that was beneficial. I would more defiantly improve my print better and make the lines more this thick to create more form, but other than that, the best part about my piece is the skeleton-like girl because she is the main attraction.