In my junior year of college, I learned how to create stencils for a mural project that I continued to use for the beginning process of my thesis up to my senior year. These projects allowed me to explore the structure of the paper to understand how to create work that represents fragmentation and create art efficiently.
Paper to Stencil
I was in charge of organizing a mural installed in Malcolm X House, a residence hall on campus that centers around an environment dedicated to the exploration and celebration of the cultural heritage of the African Diaspora. I had an idea of designing figures that center around black culture and creativity such as Lauryn Hill. Since the only available materials were paint and spray paint I had the idea of making it into a stencil since it would be easier than to paint it by hand.
Paper to Thesis:
My thesis uses stencils to integrate how text, words, or phrases are an abstract representation of vulnerability, memories, and emotional experiences. While exploring the beginning phrase of my work (Photos 1-4), I made stencils, similar to the mural project, to create monoprints, “a type of printmaking where a single, unique image is created, usually by applying ink to a surface and then pressing it onto paper. The result is a one-of-a-kind print.” Since these works lived within the same process, I was able to find strategies to make stencils efficient in terms of increasing quantity.
When creating stencils, it is important to cut out areas where you want the ink to be applied, leaving other sections empty. The uncut areas and the holes work together to form the complete image. In both my mural project and thesis, I used a laser cutter (video) to precisely cut out the intricate details, rather than doing it by hand. I used Adobe Illustrator to convert any photos into vector graphics, ensuring the file was smooth, readable, and composed of lines, curves, and points. Once the file was ready, it was sent to the laser cutter to cut the sections through which the ink would pass.
Understanding the integrity of a stencil and how the process shifts between negative and positive space, I have the confidence to use this skill for my creative practice for my thesis. Since I am given tight deadlines to make a large quantity of work, and can transfer my designs between Illustrator to paper I am efficient in finding the source of my problem efficiently if there is an error made along the way.
