The theme/concept of this project is very personal to me as it has to do with my spirituality. I am a very spiritual person, I love reading the Bible because I just love the mysticism of the stories and the joy I find in the challenge of trying to decipher and contemplate the deeper meanings of the quotes. Therefore, I wanted to translate some of my favorite quotes solely through images as a passion project. This design is based on a verse in Ecclesiastes that reads, “He has placed eternity in the heart of man”. I designed an anatomical heart and decided to place flowers inside of the heart as if the roots of the plants are growing and taking root in the human heart, therefore showing that the flowers are “placed” inside the heart. I chose flowers as the symbol to translate the word eternity, as I think of nature when I think of the word life or eternity, because nature and plants are in a constant eternal cycle of life, withering and regrowing again and again. I decide to go with bright colors in order to give my design a very positive and hopeful vibe. I chose to make wooden wall art, T-shirts, and mini sketchbooks as my three substrates. I chose wood because I love the natural beauty of rustic home decor, sketchbooks because I am an artist, and T-shirts as I felt it witty to place the image of the heart where the wearer’s actual heart would be located while wearing the T-shirt. I would eventually like to make many more Bible based illustrations and turn this passion project into a clothing brand with the name “Strength and Dignity”.
This project was created using the silk screen printing technique. I started off with a mood board, researching some of my favorite Bible quotes, creating hand drawn sketches, and then creating a digital version of my favorite sketch. This project required me to use all the techniques I learned in my screen printing class while at SDSU, as well as learning some new techniques from my professor. I did a one color plastisol ink on my T-shirts, a three color plastisol ink for my sketchbooks, and I used a three color water-based ink method for my wooden wall art, being that plastisol would have just eventually peeled off of the wood like a sticker if I had used it; I used the ganging technique for my wooden wall art and sketchbooks so that I could get more colors on my design being that I only own the single screen; I also used the halftone technique to better achieve the multi tonal look I wanted. I used spray adhesive with all my substrates in order so that they wouldn't move during the printing process. I also crafted the actual sketchbooks completely by hand.
