Final Part 3: Discussion and Point.

My 3 dice were printmaking, identity, and computer. These forms were familiar to me all too well. After all, I have taken printmaking for over 2 years now, I have used a computer in one form or another since i was very little, and I have always known a great deal about myself. When I received these categories I thought it would be nice to bring an image from the digital realm into real life. I remembered learning that there are specific printers that carve the image for a person that has been pre programmed. One such printer is a 40W CO2 Basic Hobby Laser. After the image has been transferred to a plate of some sort, the plate can be inked, layer on top of a piece of paper, and then put through a press in order to receive an image. Needless to say we did not a 40W CO2 Basic Hobby Laser printer. I was sad. Then after doing some research about what people online thought printmaking was inspiration struck. These fellow bloggers mentioned that printmaking requires a plate or multiple plates to make a final image. I asked myself, "well why can't an image not be copied or scanned through a computer and then either reuse that piece of paper to have multiple images on it or combine the scanned imagery in photoshop to obtain the desired image.

This process actually works and is do able. I first thought of what I identify with. For the past 3 years of my life I have been painting candy bars and have gotten to know the wrappers quite well. I have painted the wrappers so well that when i bring chocolate in as a pick me up to fellow classmates, people say, "Of course you would". So as for now I identify myself as a person who loves chocolate and will use that idea for as long as it interest me.

Here is where the second part of the project came in. I had been collecting candy wrappers since the beginning of the semester and had the chance to use them in this project. I took various candy wrappers and placed them on a white piece of paper. In essence, this combined object became my "plate" for printing. This plate was not inked but copied and scanned as mentioned above. This picture shows what one plate looks like.

Any plate following this one were made too to fit around the image. After copying this image. Other plates were copied onto the same piece of paper. This process resulted in a semi success. It showed that the plate could be directly scanned and printed in one go and then quickly prepped for another plate. The process resulted in the following picture. 

In this picture I did mess up the orientation of how I placed the paper in the printer and a second test was conducted with the appropriate insertion of paper, which resulted in this picture:

These pictures told me two important things. The first was I did not want there to be any overlap of wrappers in the printing process no matter how cool it may look. I am referring to the dove wrapper with the M & M bag. The second thing is that takes away any spacial reference a person might have. I decided I needed to manipulate the image in photoshop to improve upon the idea. A scanned image looked like this picture.

Images were then compiled in photoshop. When combined with another image in photoshop the image underneath was completely hidden. The merge function merges layers but did not provide the necessary function of merging pictures together. There was also the opacity level of each image, but then one image was faded. Using the knowledge I learned from my digital foundations course, I created a mask and then selected the eraser tool to reveal the layer below. This action provided the following image. 

The image seen here was printed on 8.5" X 11" ultra glossy paper in the Meyers Studio Lab, but this was not the first paper I tried. I first tried a bad 8.5" X 11" glossy paper and regular printer paper from my printer. The glossy paper smudged and the printer paper was soaked with ink. Printing on 4" X 6" ultra glossy paper worked with my printer though. The other results can be seen in Part I of the Final Project. 

The problem with a small image is that one may not necessarily see all the detail. However, the bigger an image becomes the question of how does one store it comes into play and if that is really what one wants. I like the smaller versions for postcards and thank you letters. I think the glossy paper adds a necessary shine for chocolate bars. 

Thinking I was done I approached my teacher, Richard Jochum, and fellow art students. I was given some insight after explaining that here is what I have and done is there anything else I can add to it? Richard suggested bringing he images back to the audience and trying to make the image relate to them. I thought about this for a while and realized that although it is a great idea it is not the audiences identity, but mine, not a self centered comment, but that is how I viewed the identity part. The fellow art students suggested I take the above image and add Dove wrappers throughout the whole piece. I liked that suggested, but did not go through with it because I like the break up of space at the ends.

Finally, in order to try to bring the image into the viewers realm, maybe not so they relate to piece but have to do something else besides stare at the images, I made a kinetic piece of art. This requires four images to show a progress of how the image changes as one walk around it. 

This project redefines what the printmaking process is and shows an effective way to use that process. The process is redefined in how the plates were made and possibly in it's final form. After all plates are not usually scanned into computers and prints are not usually placed on an accordion like piece of paper although they can be cut up and re-organized.