When I Look Back At It, All I Remember Is Fear

In my last semester of university, I took a screen printing class. For one project we needed to make an image with several colors. I decided to make sure I'd use specific techniques to display a full color photo in the piece. I selected a photo from a session of photography in my archive of photos. This particular photo was taken in Bolingbrook Illinois, and depicts a field soaked in rain water on the other side of a road, with a forest beyond the field. Unfortunately, I not able to match the colors of the photograph, but this was my third in the medium. The decision to use a photograph was aided by my professor, who liked my work thus far, but felt it was missing something, and recommended trying to include a photograph in the background, adding something in the negative space of the shadowbox. 

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This later decision to use this image changed my approach. I wanted to explore my time in a cult, and thus I decided to use elements from that cult, including elements from the fictional universe the art is made for in said cult, and some screenshots of messages from inside it. I was originally thinking about a vertical layout, but instead went for a landscape one with the photograph choice. I designed the layout to break up the space in a compelling way, showing a bunch of negative space and making it clear what the background photograph is of. I also decided to use a crayon drawing I made using my left hand as an element, something I had started exploring at the time. The left hand drawings are an exploration on making professional child like drawings, using my understanding as an artist to play and explore different aesthetics.  The results of this experimental print impressed myself, as well as my professor, who felt that the inclusion of a background image added to the work in a major way.