Session: Protest + Print, After-School Spring 2021

Artists: 11 participants

Materials: Rubylith transparencies, X-acto knives, cutting mats, drafting paper, pen or marker, fabric, Speedball ink, 160 mesh count screen

Description: In our spring session of Protest + Print, our girls* and gender-expansive youth printed bold artwork onto bandanas in the project, “Remember Me, Remember Us.” To create their unique visuals, our artists (including instructors HyeYoon Song and Emily Pilloton-Lam) explored their personal and ancestral histories, linking narrative with symbolic imagery. The artists paid homage to the rich history of mothers, sisters, friends, abuelas, amas, grandmamas, and matriarchal lineage within our own stories. From a beloved Costa Rican tree to a Chicago apartment to an incredible “duo of bulls”, each bandana represented an artist’s family story and identity.

The creative process went something like this: our artists first sketched their visuals onto plain drawing paper. They then used a Rubylith mask and transparency to “cut out” (with an X-acto knife)  the visual for the exposure unit. From there, the exposure unit burned the image onto the emulsion-coated screen and then voila, they screen-printed the image through the screen onto the fabric bandana! One of our talented teens also happens to be a talented seamstress, and like a true team player, she hemmed the edges of every bandana to ensure there was no fraying.

*“Girls” refers to gender-expansive youth (cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non-conforming youth, gender queer youth, and any girl-identified youth).