Rebecca Jackson

BFA Printmaking

Website: rjackso.myportfolio.com
Instagram: @rjax.art

ARTIST STATEMENT: Connections explores the attachments between the earth and the body. This series visualizes an interconnectedness and demonstrates a construction of the body through nature. Using natural materials, I physically reconnected myself with the land. I took plants, these ephemeral materials, and created permanent prints of them. Through trial and error and experimentation, I found that there are no mistakes, just new discoveries. This fueled a feeling of grounding, clearing the fogginess of my mind and led to clearer thinking. Everything is connected. Throughout the process of creating Connections, I learned how to push past uncertainty and to trust intuition. I also learned that connection runs much deeper than the physicality of things.

 How can I make all these temporary, fleeting aspects of life permanent? In what ways are we connected? This is what inspires my work. When Iā€™m outside experiencing everything the world offers, there are natural responses to what I see and feel. I remember how the environment is ever-changing, but so am I.

I created this series with a variety of techniques. I initially dyed each fabric with a different natural dye: avocado for a pink, onion skins for a yellow, and red cabbage, altered with baking soda and rust, for a green. I then used the process of eco-printing on the dyed fabric to create prints using the natural pigments within plants I gathered from my environment. Reusing the twine used for bundling the eco-prints, I stitched additional elements onto the main surface. Using the resources around me inspired me to create the screen-printed images on top as a way to portray the ways body and earth are connected. Printing multiples of each body part ā€“ hands, eyes, and feet ā€“ and painting the root-like lines extending from the body depict these connections within the work.