I created a series of Monoprints that use animals (hummingbirds), to represent something in my family’s identity. The cake and cupcakes illustrate my family’s warmth, and are specific to my mom’s family tradition of making a homemade chocolate bunt cake for everyone’s birthday. Just recently I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica, and I fell in love with the little hummingbirds that zoomed in and out of our hotel rooms. These birds perfectly illustrate the craziness of my family, and most families, in the way they zoom around, trying to get things done in a hectic manner.
To create this series I decided to combine the Lithography and Monotype processes. In doing so I had the opportunity to incorporate my more precise drawing methods to a more free and colorful process. Although I am in love with the end result, I found many difficulties along the way: Because I used the Akua inks in a water color manner the blending medium made the plates very slippery, in that the journey from my work area to the press bed created many registration problems.
Despite the tediousness and issues along the way I highly enjoyed working on this series, and developing my skills and ideas from project to project. I have learned that bigger is better, sometimes mistakes can turn into something beautiful, and to always stick with images that are meaningful to you.