lin hu: 2013

For the past ~3 months I've been a part of a mentorship program at Highpoint Center for Printmaking. Twice a week for 13 weeks, we met after school for about three hours and learned about printmaking. It took a lot of time out of my schedule and it was pretty rough trying to balance my printing class with school, college apps, and other priorities, but in the end it was worth it! I learned a lot, made a lot of art, and made a lot of friends.

We learned methods of printing including monoprint, relief print, screenprint, and dry point. After doing small projects to familiarize ourselves with each technique, we all worked on our final project in the medium of our choice. Mine is a series of screenprints printed onto tea-dyed paper.

I wanted to combine my passion for art with my passion for feminism, and ended up with 7 illustrations of legendary women, each filling a different niche in their society. I often find myself frustrated by the shallow and limited roles that female characters tend to be written into in TV shows and video games and other media (ie: the damsel in distress, the jealous ex-girlfriend, etc). Basically, I put this project together in order to show that women can and should be portrayed in all sorts of societal roles. Women can be victims and monsters, but they can also be scientists and even emperors.

The ladies featured in this project come from times ranging from 2300 BC to 2013 AD, and originate from fairy tales, pop culture, mythology, and history.