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Conclusion

Overall in all honesty I found this project to be the trickiest one yet. I found myself pretty frazzled from beginning to near end.

This project was a pretty broad theme and I did find this difficult as to settle on one thing.

I think maybe talking to my tutors more would have helped me in the long run which I know this for my next project.

Looking back there’s a lot of things I would have done differently but I loved learning all these new forms of printing that I had never done.

My two favourites were the anthotype and the electro-etch. I love how easy it is to create the solution for the anthotype and I love the science behind making the electro-etch.

If I’m to be completely honest I don’t think I’ll be using sustainability as an integral part of my print making in the future as I’m very much into Lino material, however I do love woodcutting so maybe I can recycle wood to create my Lino’s?

All together, I think there’s a lot I did wrong in this project but I do think you’ll find some interesting and fascinating parts to my pieces (at least I hope you will).

Thanks, and see you in second year!!

(Featuring a pic I took in Pharmacia. Isn’t it aesthetic?😉)

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2/05/2025

• Today was wall day!!

• I had a few pieces to tie together such as my “Tales of my Undertaker Dad”.

• I’m pretty happy with how my wall looks, have a feeling I’ve forgotten something but sure we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

• There was a lot of procrastination and stress but I got it done so that’s the main thing.

• I’m quite nervous about presenting as I’m first up and I’m not entirely happy with my project, but I know I’ll do fine and am going to practise my answers over the weekend.

• I’m quite sad that this year has nearly come to an end but I’m excited to learn more ways to print next year!

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1/5/2025

• Today I locked in and decided I was printing my lino from yesterday and was creating a woodblock to go with my new theme.

• I really like mushrooms in general, as food and that I have three mushroom lamps in my room 😂.

• I decided to free hand a drawing of mushrooms onto my woodblock and see what I came up with.

• I really like how it turned out and thought the composition worked beautifully.

• When printing this design I had a good few stray lines that showed up on my prints but actually thought it added to the piece.

• It made it look like the mushrooms were flowing down a stream which I thought was really cool!

• For my print from yesterday I knew it was gonna be a two stage print.

• For the first print everything was cut out as normal except the mushrooms which I left there.

• I printed in red first cause I knew I could put black ontop of red but not the other way around.

• Once I had done that I cut out the middle of the mushrooms to give them an outline.

• Some of the prints didn’t line up but I really rather those compared to the ones that did work perfectly.

• I wrote a small story to this print, ‘This Lino print is of a girl lying face down waiting for her body to decompose and become one with the earth. She’s wearing a mushroom burial suit and is lying in a bed of mushrooms, her hair spread out while she awaits her ultimate demise.’.

• I really like how both these prints turned out.

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30/4/2025

• Today I stayed home to continue my mind map and maybe come up with some pieces to show my process.

• I looked back at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility in Texas as that’s one of pieces of research I really liked.

• I wanted to see how nature and death could collide and that’s when I came across the “mushroom grave” also known as the “mushroom burial suit”.

• I really found it fascinating and when I saw what the suit looked like, I really liked the patterns on it so I came up with a lino design that I thought would be really cool.

• I designed and cut it out on my Lino material but since I was at home decided to wait to print it tomorrow.

• Overall I’m really liking the way my project is going now however, I’m quite annoyed at myself as I now have so many ideas for this theme with so little time.

• I wish I had done a few more mind maps to flesh out my idea before creating some of the work I did.

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Artist Reseach

• One of the artists I came across when looking back at The Forensic Anthropology Research Facility was Jessica Harrison.

• I started researching forensic artists and while I was I came across a video on tiktok about the “Broken Ladies”.

• I was really intrigued and decided to look into it.

• I think it’s such a cool and creepy way to revive these porcelain figures and give them a new meaning.

• I feel like it fits my project of the eerie cycle because instead of the broken pieces being thrown away it was given an eerie makeover, stopping the more common cycle.

Jessica Harrison

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29/04/2025

• Today I decided to take a step back and create a mind map.

• I know it’s pretty late to go back to the start but I really needed to look through my pieces and decide what I wanted this project to be about.

• From the crime manifestos, to the undertaker stories to the flowers and trees, I needed to write out some of my key words that I wanted to focus on.

• I came up with eerie cycle of life and death.

• I know this is a very broad theme but to pull all my pieces together I needed to.

• I wanted to share the beautiful and the strange, the assumptions vs the reality.

• Look I know this is a pretty big stretch, but I think to make this project work, it had to be done.

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28/04/2025

• Today I spoke with Suzannah and realised I’m very lost with my project.

• I had planned to just create pieces and at the end tie them all together but that honestly was a pretty bad decision.

• I spoke with Suzannah about what I wanted to do and she helped me further my idea.

• I spoke with my dad about some of the things he had to encounter in his line of work, undertaking.

• I want to add the other stories later but for now this one was the one I focused on.

• Tbh the actual piece I was working towards, I don’t really like the outcome at all however I got two prints from it that I really like as separate pieces.

• I think I may go with my original idea of writing onto the print as it will be easier for me to control.

• I do love the colour and think I really got that dried blood colour right.

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8/04/2025

• Today I FINALLY finished my woodblock print (don’t ask why it took so long please).

• I did it based on the frosted window in our shared room.

• I wanted a simple design that could be patterned together.

• I like how it turned out but need to figure out what to add to it to make it more interesting.

• I also got to try this machine for the first time.

• I really liked it as it makes it so much easier to centre my prints.

• I can’t wait to use this in the future.

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3/04/2025

• Today I got have to learn how to create an electro-etch.

• Des and me both learned how to do it with a little help from Emma😂.

• I’m still a bit unsure of my exact project but I’ve narrowed it down to three keywords: Nature, Death and Uncanny.

• I decided on an evergreen tree because I’ve always felt connected to them.

• When we were writing our manifestos with Fiona one of the things I put down was that I want to live in an evergreen forest when I’m older.

• I love that they have a never ending cycle of life, rarely dying unless the climate doesn’t work with it.

• I was also inspired to pick an evergreen because of a piece I saw done by Ultan McAvinue.

• I love how this piece makes the viewer seem so small, surrounded by these trees.

• For some it may be frightening but for me it’s so calming.

Ultan McAvinue- Flourish

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1/04/2025 • Because I wasn't able to get into college the Tuesday I decided to do a bit of research on some paintings I saw in Cork airport.

• These were created by the Irish artist, Natasha O’ Shea.

• I really like her use of colour and the way she places her designs.

• I love how she leaves space between her drawings making them look like pretty doodles.

• The mushroom painting made me think of a mushroom grave and I definitely want to make a piece around that.

Photos From Cork Airport- Natasha O' Shea

From Her Website- Natasha O' Shea

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Artist Research From My Trip

• When I went to the open market I came across a little shop called ‘Mimo’.

• It was this really colourful shop that you could see from a mile away and it really piqued my interest.

• I spent nearly half an hour just circling around it due to me finding so much cute stuff.

• Once I got their card and looked up the Instagram I realised there were 2 co-owners.

• I started to look through their accounts and really liked one of their accounts a lot.

• Maya Doyle is her name and she creates illustrations and some ceramics for the shop.

• At this moment I knew I wanted to somehow mix crime and nature so I wanted to see if any of her pieces had anything to do with these themes.

• I really liked her ceramic vases because I think they give off a almost creepy vibe which fits my theme.

• She also creates these little ghost pieces which I really liked and reminded me of another shop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • The York Ghost Merchants was founded in 2019 by Angus McArthur and David Bloodworth, along with Wendy Dent. They set up shop in a quirky old building on the Shambles, right in the heart of York's famously haunted streets.

• They were very inspired by the city's ghostly past and began crafting unique, handmade ghosts, each with its own character.

• Their inspiration was also found through the history of The Sorrowful Guild of Master Ghost Makers.

• They started in York back in the late 1700s, with a toymaker named Elias Grimsby who made the first ghost to remember someone he’d lost. • What began as a small, quirky idea soon turned into a whole group of makers, each crafting their own little ghosts full of character and charm. • These days, every ghost is still handmade, either above the shop on the Shambles or just around the corner in a Georgian townhouse on St Saviourgate—both places known for keeping this unique, slightly spooky tradition going.

• I found this shop on Instagram when it first opened its doors and hope to go there at least once in my life. • I really love the history of this shop and I love the creepiness. • I hope to use these as inspiration for my prints. Mimo/Maya Doyle

The York Ghost Merchants

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27/03/2025 to the 1/04/2025

• For these few days I went with my sister to a place called Burguss Hill.

• It was a very unexpected trip for me as I wasn’t meant to be going until I was told a week before.

• Although I didn’t create anything during this time exploring all these new places I got a lot of inspiration.

• I had planned to go to the Tate modern but sadly there was engineering happening with some of the trains so it wasn’t possible for me.

• I however explored a lot of Brighton and came across the Brighton Open Market.

• I found a lot of artists that I thought are so interesting.

• At this point, I don’t really have a solid idea so I thought this was a great time to do a good bit of artist research and try to refresh my head a bit to tie my project together.

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25/03/2025

(Continuation of photos from Limerick Printmakers)

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25/03/2025

• Today although I didn’t do any printing I did a lot of artist research (at least I think that’s what this is classed as).

• We started the day with a talk from Chris Cleary, a past graduate from LSAD.

• His talk was very interesting and his pieces are pretty cool.

• What really interested me was the residences he has done in different countries.

• I didn’t really know that this was a thing so it was quite cool to learn about what I could do after I graduate.

• We then went to Limerick Printmakers and got shown around the facility.

• I was mostly interested in seeing some of the completed works done by some of the print makers.

• We were shown the techniques of figuring out what form of printing is used in pieces and how to label work for selling or displaying.

• I took photos of some of the works that I took interest in.

• I really like the pieces with a metallic element included as I love the shininess of it and how it brings parts of the pieces to life.

• Overall this was a very inspiring activity and I really look forward to growing my print skills so maybe my pieces might be there some day.

(Have too many photos so they will continue onto the next post)

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24/03/2025

• Today we started this weeks activity which is Anthotype.

• Due to the high UV Index we were able to not only use the UV box but also take our prints outside and see how well they develop.

• Anthotype uses turmeric and Isopropyl alcohol to create a mixture that is sensitive to UV light.

• Anthing that is not covered will be hit with the UV, causing a bleaching effect.

• Anything covered will turn a Burgundy colour.

• This was a very interesting project and I really liked it.

• I had done the cyanotype workshop in semester 1 but didn’t like how long it took for the pages to dry.

• Anthotype is much quicker which for me makes it more enjoyable.

• At this moment in time my theme had slowly started to change.

• I really enjoyed creating flower drawings and using buttercups and ivy as my inspiration.

• I’ve decided to go with the flow for now and hopefully everything will come together by the end.

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20/03/2025

• Today we were asked to go out and draw some simple line drawings.

• I drew 3 (not great drawings) that would be used to create some monoprints.

• Dez showed us how to use extender in our ink which we would use to create out monoprints.

• I focused on my drawing of a sign out the front of the college.

• I used some wallpaper that I had to add some cool tecture and used cut out paper to block anywhere I didn’t want ink to show.

• Once I printed into my first page I used the left over ink on the paper to create another print that was a little more faded.

• I tried a few different techniques like trying to add words which didn’t really turn out but I enjoyed giving it a try.

• Overall I didn’t really like how my prints came out but I did learn a lot from this session.

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18/03/2025

Artist Research

• While speaking with Suzannah she gave me an artist to have a look at called ‘Mel Bochner’.

• He is known as one of the founders of Conceptual Art and he sadly passed away last month.

• His pieces are so colourful and filled with texture it really inspired me to create a piece inspired by him.

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• For the last project I found this print company in New York called, ‘Flavor Paper’.

• I liked their pieces as they use screen print to create their designs before making them into wallpaper.

• I thought it’d be cool to do a crime inspired wall paper inspired by them or something like that.

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• When scrolling on Instagram I sometimes put posts into a folder called ‘Ideas For College’.

• I can’t remember when I found this but when I was trying to find artists for my artist research I came across this video.

• The stand was created by @printsidestudio on Insta from Angeles City.

• I think it’s such a cool concept and reminded me of orienteering from Primary and Secondary School.

• I’d love to do a piece inspired by it.

Mel Bochner

Flavor Paper

Print Side Studio