A Sunday in the studio.

To family: Here is proof that Karl has not been goofing off in college thus far.
To friends: Here is proof that I did not spend this weekend screwing around, nor have I been avoiding any of you.

My silkscreening final has been the death of my weekend social life. Sunday evening consisted of me camping out in the silkscreening studio from 9 PM to 5:30 AM to complete the finishing touches on my ambitious inky undertaking.

I don't mean to throw a pity party for myself, but this was a lot of work. But really, I have grown to love silkscreening so much that it is probably bad that I am devoting so much time to it. In case there are any questions on what the work exactly is, here are answers:

License plates are interesting pieces of both art and identification. They can reveal a lot about the state being depicted, and they can be personalized to show off an individual's personality. Their relation to cars made me think about directions, and I then began to question what direction our country is going in. Looking at the ongoing economic recession, I decided to incorporate this message (Excuse me, but which way is the road to recovery?) onto six license plates of states heavily affected by the recession. These states were not necessarily the ones hurting the most, but ones that conveyed the widespread effect of the recession. For example, you see Michigan and Detroit's fall from being the major U.S. economic powerhouse; you have the word "Sunshine" on Florida's license plate and "Empire" on New York's, ironically evoking happiness and strength respectively; even the smallest of states in Rhode Island are feeling the immense pressure. Furthermore, the fall of the American auto industry is a major contributor to the economic recession.

After this weekend and today's critique, I'm feeling ever more confident in majoring in art. Hooray!

Now for some shameless advertising: Come to the Art Walk on Friday, December 11th!