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 I’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 – hands, eyes, and feet – and painting the root-like lines extending from the body depict these connections within the work.