My Art in Recent "Fellowship of Printmakers" Show

This past Tuesday, I had the incredible opportunity to take part in a group printmaking show with some friends and mentors of mine, and it was showcased at APU. 🥳

This idea was brought to me by my professor at the end of last semester just as I was graduating. My printmaking professor, Daniela, asked me if I had any interest in her Fellowship of Printmakers show in the Fall. I had quite literally no idea what I would do or how I would even make it happen (since I was an hour away from APU’s resources while I was home for the summer), but I said yes.

(One of the things I learned recently is that sometimes you have to take initiative on a project even if you don’t have the creativity in place for it yet. As they say, “trust the process,” and the creativity will come.)

So I spent my summer ideating. As a recent graduate from APU, I had quite literally no obligations (other than applying to jobs) and could pursue any artistic direction I wanted. This mindset could have been overwhelming, but I had a spark of inspiration around the beginning of July.

There were some themes from the previous art I was creating while at APU. In my fiction class, I was actively seeking to portray mental health and how it is perceived through the church. I was also very inspired by the movie, Carrie, and how women can be seen as less-than socially, historically, and religiously. In my senior art show, I was seeking to show words in a holy space to provide the opportunity for deserved reflection on how words are almost sacred in how deeply they affect us and are essential to life. And in doing so, I was able to create some blackout poetry that handled some difficult ideas already on my mind. All throughout this, there was this large theme of divinity and yearning for a proper holy space where things that are usually dismissed can now be placed somewhere where attention is demanded. This lasting theme became my technique for my pieces in this printmaking show.

This was my idea/artist statement:

I’m showcasing four different designs that display different female icons from history that challenged and influenced their time period and humanity’s perception of God’s role for women. Each of them corresponds with the suits of playing cards. The spade (♠), representing the military, is for Joan of Arc, who believed God told her to attack the English in the siege of Orléans, and then was later put on trial and killed for heresy and cross-dressing. The heart (♥), representing the church, pairs with Mary, the mother of Jesus. She’s shown with reminiscent features of Mary crying (from Our Lady of Sorrows), the traditional nun’s habit, and some weighty cross necklaces. The diamond (♦️), representing the merchant class, matches with the Wife of Bath from The Canterbury Tales who desired for women to have control over their husbands. Lastly, the club (♣), representing agriculture, depicts Tituba, one of the first convicted witches during the Salem Witch Trials, who confessed to witchcraft after being beaten by her slave owner.

Each of these women all had their own print, and these were assembled as a set of four in the middle of the wall. I also made paper candles and placed them in a circle around the artwork. Finally, I hung strands of playing cards from the ceiling (which was an homage to my senior art show where I dangled pages and words from the ceiling).

So we have Joan of Arc, Mary, the Wife of Bath, and Tituba the Witch…probably all very strange women to put next to each other.

Let's talk about them—

Joan of Arc was not seen as a Saint when she was killed, but was later recognized as a Saint by the Catholic Church, the same people who convicted her. And to this day, we still view her as someone holy. She was a teenage girl at the time she was claiming to have prophecies from God, and though she participated in battle, she was still put on trial for heresy. They also requested for her to wear a proper dress on the day of her trial, and she did not. I read in some places that it was her decision to not wear the dress, and I read in other places that her dress was stolen from her by the jail's guards. She was seen as guilty by the church on many accounts. Her death was a tragedy.

Mother Mary, someone also considered holy, was perhaps a bit romanticized by Christian culture for being blessed to give birth to Jesus, yet we forget how much pressure she must have felt. We forget the torment of motherhood and of losing a child. Mary would have also socially been outcasted for being pregnant before her marriage and for giving birth to someone put on trial and crucified for blasphemy. I think her story deserves more recognition, especially as a woman, who had such an integral role in Jesus' life. Jesus would not have come to earth without Mary.

The Wife of Bath, though not an actual person in history, still was a challenging figure. The story is written where a knight must discover what women want to prevent his own execution, and when the wife tells him her answer, he must marry her. And her answer was probably incredibly threatening to this knight because a woman from the merchant class was telling a knight that women desire control over their husbands. That is even a shock to hear today. We live in a world where husbands can have total control, but wives should never. Women have been seen as less than men for a very long time. The Wife of Bath had a radical view, but I wanted to give her opinion the space to be contemplated.

Lastly, the strangest one I probably chose to show, the convicted witch, Tituba. Tituba was a Native American slave living in Massachusetts during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. There was an incredible hysteria during the time among Puritan Protestants who believed the devil was among them in the form of witches. Reverend Samuel Parris was Tituba’s slave owner, and he believed that she was tormenting his children by means of witchcraft. Thus, he put her on trial and beat her until she confessed to being haunted by the devil who told her to hurt the reverend’s children. I think her story is interesting because I think that her background already deemed her as underprivileged and misunderstood in Salem’s community. As a Native American slave woman, the odds were all against her, and she would’ve stood no chance against a male Reverend who was also her slave owner, whether she participated in witchcraft or not. Even if she had hurt his children and participated in witchcraft, I still think her story is a misunderstood and depressing story, and I wanted to bring awareness to it.

None of these women were given the attention they needed or deserved, and I think that’s tragic. Marginalized people and women have been downplayed throughout history, and I really just desired to give some of these notable women a holy platform for them to be recognized.

As a woman, firstly, I feel fortunate to have been born in a time and a setting where I won’t be killed or disrespected on a large scale for dressing more masculine, but I was still raised during a time where white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and outdated Christian traditions have still impacted my idea of who I can be as a woman in society.

I think women should be respected and regarded just as Mother Nature should be cared for and seen as holy. We forget the importance of women as a society, and I want to create an impact where people realize that women can be just as successful and worthy of respect as men. In fact, everyone should be worthy of respect and have the opportunity to be just as successful as the white man.

Please check out some photos of my gallery showcase portfolio by clicking here!