Project 3: Letter Press and Pressure Print

This project was interesting to figure out because the pressure print brought a whole new element to play. The pressure print works a lot getting an etching from a tree, the parts closer to paper will appear darker when printed. That being said I had to create a plate with a layered paper doll to make create different values in my piece. The result was this:

The last thing to do was to add text to it using the letter press, which involves lining letters up on metal plate and securing them so that they don't move during printing. Works the best with horizontal lettering. However, my vision involved free flowing lettering, and this would be impossible with the normal letter press technique. So, I wound up printing by hand, taping up the words that I would need in the shapes I desired.
And Finally you have my piece, "Self-Loathing" below:

One odd thing about humans that is contradictory to any normal instinct of survival is self-loathing. In my observations, at some point or another, most people experience some form of self-loathing; no matter how mild or intense. There always seems to be something that people dislike about themselves. The letter press/mono/pressure print, Self-Loathing, is about capturing the essence and feeling of self-loathing and the depression that comes with it. You surround yourself with harsh, demeaning words, you feel like you are slowly fading away into the background, into insignificance. And it might be strange to say, but there is a kind of comfort in it. It’s almost like a heavy blanket of depression and lethargy that you wrap around yourself, then you drift into a sleep. From my experience, it’s something that you cling to when things get tough. Because it’s much easier to sit it the shadows, paralyzed than it is to face problems in your life. This too speaks to your character as a person, if you rise above or fall below, and how you react to that.