Blog Post #5 - Impact your community prints

1.  The topic I chose for my project was animal abuse and animal rehabilitation. As a modern society, the news of animal mistreatment is constantly in the media. We are aware of the problem, but don't look enough for solutions. Having companies like the marine mammal society to rescue, rehabilitate, and then release animals like the sea lion are a blessing and a true light in the darkness. That is why the background of that half of the piece is blue like the sea and orange for light and hope these organizations bring. The only thing is that while things like this thrive, animals like the orca are still being abused and but in terrible conditions under wraps from the public. I am not saying that all orcas are treated badly, but they are used more a clown or pawn in the game to making money. That is why the orca has a clown nose and a red backdrop to its water paradise. Both are marine animals suffering from different struggles, but there is a vast difference in actual causes to put an end to the enslavement.
2. I think I successfully completed the goals of this project because I really wanted to center on the idea of my work being mass produced and shared around different communities such as ours and around the world. As a teen growing up in Marin, there is a lot of shelter from the things we don't want to see. We focus on the good things like the Marine Mammal Center, and not the animals that are left behind on land and sea. It would be extremely rewarding to spread a message of hope for other animals, abused in captivity or endangered in the wild.
3. I used both block printing and screen printing mediums in my art piece to show that these simplistic designs can be made in any format and mass produce awareness for any animal. I used a very soft, easy to carve material for the seal, as if was a smaller design. I did run into a couple of difficulties, as I ended up carving out the inside of the body and negative space around the shape to leave line work that was a little unstable for the material. It created successful prints, but it was hard to make it even as I had to cut off many areas that received paint I didn't want. Now I know if I wanted the thin line work to be printed, it would receive the ink better on more substantial material that could be more easily mass produced. I used screen printing on the orca because it was a large size. I originally cut out the wrong parts of my project as I misinterpreted my original plans. I had to start over and do it the opposite way to make a correct print. For next time, I would be more clear about my directions and double check before I cut away at the paper.
4. For my piece, as there are two halves, I wanted there to be overlap in the color scheme to connect them. I wanted both of the figures to be the same black ink with similar backgrounds with a twist. The red of the orca's nose matches the red in the background to showcase the more evil and twisted side of the equation. The orange and yellow represents the light and contrast with the blue to show that their is hope and rescue when they need it. The color really plays an important part of my projects because it is what binds them together and how similar creatures go through much different obstacles. I also wanted to use the same block letters in black ink to connect the two pieces together.
5. This was a mini project, and I had a lot I wanted to accomplish. I am very proud of my hard work that went into my piece, but nothing is perfect and of course there would be things I would change and do differently next time. Looking at them now, I think I would add a line where the white part's of the orca end. It may be a little confusing, and it would have been hard to cut out in my paper. I could easily add the line after, but I would definitely figure out someway to make it work if I did this again. Also, if this was to be spread out to the public and handed out, I would figure out how to do the letters. For both I used the same block letters to add more connection between the pieces, but also if it were to be mass produced I would want to work them in to the actual print.
6. If I had infinite resources, time, and money to get my project out to the world I would spread it through many different mediums. I am a strong believer in the good media can do, so I would obviously sell stickers, posters, and tee shirts on a website, or give them out as rewards for donations to aiding abused and endangered species. My goal is really just to spread awareness and help create a fair chance for all animals to get the help they need.

Blog Post #6 - Research

1.   List of Ideas: Gay Marriage, Animal Abuse, Extinction, Deforestation, Wage Gap, Food Waste, Suicide, Mental Illness

2. I want to focus my project largely on suicide and mental illness awareness.

3. http://people.com/celebrity/project-semicolon-empowers-people-who-suffer-from-depression/
      The project was started in 2013 by Amy Bleuel, who was inspired by her own personal struggle with depression, mental illness, suicide attempts and the loss of her own father to suicide. She decided to turn the semicolon into a symbol of hope and love for those who were struggling.
https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2017/03/31/project-semicolon-founder-amy-bleuel-dies-at-31/
Sadly, Bleuel lost her own battle with depression last Thursday, March 23. She was 31. The hope shared by Project Semicolon’s founder is captured by the organization’s reminder, “Your story isn’t over.” The semicolon represents the continuation of your life after struggling with thoughts of suicide and death, which are a common component of clinical depression.
https://projectsemicolon.com

As the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and the second leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 34, suicide is a serious public health problem.

Each year in the United States, more than 40,000 people die by suicide (one every 15 minutes) and 1 million people attempt suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

4. There is not really an opposing group to people not wanting people to end their lives. The main negative force from people is the stigma behind depression and these other mental illnesses. We look down on these people as if they are a problem, and it has become normal to judge socially and also in our health care to get places to help.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/25/stigma-of-mental-illness/9875351/
Stigma against the mentally ill is so powerful that it's been codified for 50 years into federal law, and few outside the mental health system even realize it. This systemic discrimination, embedded in Medicaid and Medicare laws, has accelerated the emptying of state psychiatric hospitals, leaving many of the sickest and most vulnerable patients with nowhere to turn.

5. Shawn Cross took the online trend of Inktober and turned it into a statement where each day of October he did a ink drawing of a different form of mental illness. I am inspired by these sketches because along with the semicolon they are simplistic and are not meant to take a long time to draw. They get the point across by expressing the fear and turmoil quickly.
Lindsay Carter expresses how she deals with her invisible illness in her tattoos. Carter is one of 5 artists that make up Ink Visible, who has a goal to visualize these disabilities that are invisible. Im extremely inspired by how she wants to fix the stigma and show the feeling through a design meant to be put your body like the semicolon.