Love

by Morgan Recker

Continuation of Impact & Empathy Project

Step 4: More Research

When researching the history of protest art, I chose to specifically focus on the topic of LGBTQ+ protest art. This topic is very close to my heart because I am friends with many people who identify with this group of people and often feel like their voices aren’t represented enough in today’s society.

I began my research by reading about the symbolism of the “Pink Triangle” that originated in Nazi concentration camps, used to signify a prisoner’s sexual orientation. This led me to research different artists who participated in the Stonewall Riots in the late 1960s and the AIDS movement during the 1980s. I ended up drawing lots of inspiration from posters created during this era. I became enamored with the process protesters used to create these artworks, including utilizing lithograph and riso printing, graffiti, stencil making, and hand drawn typography to get their message across to a public who didn’t want to hear them.

Screen captures of the Google Doc that I created to document all of the research I wanted to include in my final publication.

I became very inspired by a lot of the protest art that was created specifically during the 1980s in the United States protesting the U.S. government’s negligence regarding the AIDS crisis. Their bold type and clear imagery became something that I knew I wanted to incorporate into my own work.

Some posters that I became inspired by. I loved their use of bold color and type that made their messages that much more powerful.

Step 5: Iterations

I knew I wanted to experiment with making physical art since most of the art I had done research on was hand-made. I began my journey by purchasing white, black, and fluorescent pink and blue spray paint from True Value on Beacon Street. I knew I was interested in making stencils, intrigued by their ability to recreate art quickly and efficiently. After a couple Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods shopping runs, I had enough paper shopping bags to begin cutting stencils out of.

I struggled at first to conceptualize where to cut and where not to cut in order to create an effective stencil, but with the help of my engineering roommate, I was able to get the hang of knowing where to cut in order to create the desired stencil effect. The process was especially tedious as I only really had access to our kitchen scissors for cutting the stencils, but the results were ultimately successful.

The stencils themselves were heavily inspired by Keith Haring’s artwork in addition to the phrase “Love is Love”.

Here is a video of me cutting out a stencil with our kitchen scissors. It captures just how long these took me to draw and cut.

Here is the process of me taping down each element on a complicated stencil.

Some cut outs of what the stencils looked like by themselves after having been sprayed.

Using these stencils, I began spraying in the back alley behind the dumpsters of my apartment. I experienced a couple challenges when executing this process, one of which being the Boston wind trying to make all of my hard work blow away and another being avoiding my landlord. I stole some cardboard from the recycling bin and began spraying on that after learning that it would be very easy to spray all of the asphalt in the alley neon pink. I learned to tediously tape down every last edge on each stencil so that it would lay flat on the bag below it, creating a sharp outline. After a couple tries, the outcome was an unexpected success.

Some examples of what the stencils looked like after having been sprayed.

Three posters I made to be viewed as a set.

During this process, I fell in love with how the paint bled and overlapped onto different colors and how you could easily collage different elements. The entire product felt even more raw and important due to their haphazard nature.

Step 6: Microlens Iterations

After having created these posters, I knew I was interested in photographing them in a way that would capture all of their imperfections. Professor Grady mentioned in class that a method of documentation could be renting different camera lenses from Hunt’s in either Kenmore Square or Melrose and photographing your work. After discussing this with Abby, we decided to rent a macro lens together. After a mixup with the Kenmore Square location, I borrowed my generous roommate’s car and drove the 25 minutes to Melrose to rent this lens. It turned out to be worth it, however. We got a lot of super interesting shots filled with texture and color. I photographed both the stencils by themselves in addition to the spray painted posters.

Microlens images of the stencils.

Microlens images of the posters themselves.

Step 7: Start of Book

When thinking about beginning this book, I knew I wanted to combine my research with the iterations I made. With this in mind, I created a system that allowed me to put all of my content into a magazine format. I am already super inspired by art direction, so I wanted to be sure to combine lots of historical images alongside artwork. My first couple iterations very clearly followed a system.

The spreads from my first book.

After having a one-on-one meeting with Professor Grady, I came to the conclusion that I was following too much of a system in this magazine format. My title page and captions became repetitive and boring after a few spreads. I needed to change the pace of the format so that it felt more unexpected. I did this by changing the title pages and placement of some of the captions. In addition to this, I also added page numbers, another section about the selected typeface, and an extra image of my hand.

An image of the feedback I received after a one-on-one crit looking at the spreads in my book.

Step 8: Final Book

These edits resulted in a much more dynamic book that had more unique, unexpected spreads.

I am very proud of how this book turned out. I am amazed by all of the hard work that accumulated to get me this far. I enjoyed every part of this process and all of the research that came with it. It is honestly one of my most favorite projects thus far. To be able to say I made all of these things and then combined them into an informed book is very impressive to me.