Within and Without is a silkscreened series of postcards and notebooks in three to six color layers. Designed and printed during the 2021 pandemic, I wanted to create a channel with which to facilitate meaningful communication.
I was inspired by two specific activities, which at the time were both transformative and lacking in my life: letter writing and journaling. Exploring these themes of personal connection and communication, I designed a series of postcards and notebooks, expressing three levels of relation: introspective, interpersonal, and collective. The notebooks represent the introsective dimension, the postcards the interpersonal, and my choice of imagery and text the collective. I used found imagery of flora and fauna, and quotes on relationality, interdependence, and care to symbolize and complement the project’s purpose.
My color and composition choice suggest an uncluttered, dreamy, and organic flow, balancing similarities for cohesion and variety for interest. This is reflected in my choice of clean lines, semi-abstracted image processing, monotone colour blocks, and a simple variable grid composition. This project used reclaimed materials, a Japanese stab binding technique, and photo emulsion.
These cards and notebooks are a catalyst, a gift, an opportunity, to both reach in and reach out. There is something touching and endlessly appealing about physicality, and I wanted my medium and format to represent this part of the message. For me the slow and cyclical process of screenprinting is the same as sitting down to think and to write. Waiting for the ink to dry is the same as waiting (im)patiently for the letter to come. And cleaning and patching a dirty old screen is just as frustrating as healing yourself when it’s time to look inward. What this series is saying is: make some time to heal yourself, maintain and deepen relationships, and make more space for the pleasures of slow and mindful connection.
