BYUH students share their experiences and their final projects from the first lithography class taught at BYUH
Three BYU–Hawaii students who said they loved art and were seeking to learn new skills took the first lithography class offered at BYUH. Although they said it challenged them with where they were artistically, the students explained it helped them use their creativity to succeed, drawing inspiration from things they loved to make their projects.
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, lithography is, “a printmaking process in which a design is drawn onto a flat stone (or prepared metal plate, usually zinc or aluminum) and affixed by means of a chemical reaction.”
Finding inspiration
Iris Player, a junior from California majoring in visual arts, shared the story behind the prints she made for her lithography final project. Feeling overwhelmed and overtaken by the inspiration of nature, Player said, “The old will always overcome the new.” For her final project, she said she wanted to create pieces with giant robots in really large nature scenes. She added how she had inspiration from an artist she admired who drew robots with interesting shapes and designs.
Player created a set of two pieces that accompany each other. She said she started with one titled “Going Somewhere.” “I wanted to take inspiration from nature in these settings, and I learned that apparently flamingos live near volcanoes , which I thought was funny. They are called ‘Volcano Flamingos.’” The head of the robot depicted in the lithograph has the shape of a flamingo head. Player said she called it “Going Somewhere” because the flamingo robot is looking to get somewhere and get its hand, which is broken, fixed. The second print in the set contrasts heavily with the first, entitled “Going Nowhere.” The robot in this piece appears dead-eyed and a little bit hopeless, placed in the middle of the ocean. Player said she based its design on a deep-sea diver. Player’s prints are pictured on pages 30 and 31.
Elinor Cash, a junior from Illinois majoring in graphic design, said she created a set of prints inspired by a Latin phrase “Adastra Peraspa” which translates to, “to the stars through difficulty.” Cash said she really likes fantasy and was inspired by locations and fantastical elements from “Dungeons and Dragons.” “I’m a huge nerd,” Cash explained. Through this inspiration and her creativity, she created fantasy ships and said she thought it would be interesting to have one ship represent ocean and space and the other represent earth. The first print, “Adastra,” includes whales, water and the sky. The other print, titled “Peraspera,” features mushrooms and mountains. Cash’s prints are pictured on the right.
Ally Pack, a senior double-majoring in graphic design and marketing from Idaho, said she often feels imposter syndrome when it comes to studio-based art classes due to contrast between the hands-on nature of the projects and her usual graphic design projects. Pack said wanted to try lithography to overcome some of those fears she had based in perfectionism. She said lithography in general has taught her patience, peace and fulfillment.
When choosing what to do for her final lithography project, Pack said she kept coming back to her love of the gospel and the Savior and how living in Laie filled gaps in her soul through the Holy Spirit. Pack said, “Before coming back to school after my mission, I struggled with change and leaving the mainland, and I decided to pray to find ways to make Laie more of my home. My Heavenly Father led me to seek His light and love from within His holy house.”
For this reason, Pack said she wanted to draw attention to the history behind the Laie Hawaii Temple and the beauty found in its design and architectural elements. She said she felt as if researching the community and the history of its people would contribute to the significance of her prints. She explained, Laie is a sacred place of fellowship and belonging for many nations and has also become her place of peace. Of the sacredness of the Laie Hawaii Temple, architect Harold Burton said, “I was 29 years old when I designed that. With all the experience I’ve had, I couldn’t add one thing to that building. Not one thing. I was inspired, pure inspiration. That was way over my head.”
Pack said, “Spending quite a bit of time researching led me to a design process that involved collaging multiple precious indigenous flowers and other motifs prevalent throughout the building. I chose to draw attention to the structural elements by adding chine collé as the negative space to my first print and tie this unique temple back to the loving people of Laie.” Chine collé, according to the 15th Street Gallery website is “a special printmaking technique in which paper of a different color or texture is adhered to the overall piece.” The directional elements are meant to remind us of our journey to our real home and the covenants we make in the temple to help us get there, Pack said. The final print, titled “Divine Motif,” is a reminder to endure to the end and enjoy the experience, she said, particularly in regards to this bountiful planet and the nature that surrounds us. According to Pack, this project was a reaffirmation to her, as the artist, of the divine artistic nature of our Heavenly Father and His desire to inspire His children.
Pack said she would highly recommend any artist to take the class to experience a new form of art and improve their composition and drawing skills. She added, “It’s such a fun way to do hands-on art as a graphic designer and paves the way for more in-depth exploration of publication.” Pack’s prints are pictured on the left.
Experiencing something new
Player said her friend had asked her if the two of them should take the lithography class, even though they were a little bit skeptical because it is a new class. Player said she assured him he should and that the class was really laid back. “There’s only 10 people in the class. We could do basically whatever we wanted. It’s more of learning techniques and that’s the only hard part.” She said Associate Professor Jihae Kwon, the lithography instructor from the Faculty of Arts & Letters, was great, and Player always looked forward to going to class. Player said the three-hour class allowed her to see progress during each class period. Although the class was at 8 a.m., she said she enjoyed getting up in the morning, getting something done and feeling productive.
Cash said she also highly recommends taking the lithography class. “It’s a very different experience. I had never even heard of lithography before taking it and I kind of took it on a whim, but I want to take it again if possible.” Cash said it was a big challenge, but a unique one. She specifically recommends it for people who love art and want to try something new, explaining it has opened her eyes to the possibilities of what she can do in the art industry.