Zachary Foster

I Want to Be Seen Triptych

Well well well, back to large format. Not as large as the canvases but still large enough to question my place on this earth. As I always do, I’ll go into the problems and lessons learned with this print first. The large format film printer is broken, which for those of you who dont know, film is a critical part of the screen process, it is I create my stencils with. Anway so yea, had to go through copy and print services which was a slight nightmare, I had to use a paper stock called transparent bond (NOT TRANSPARENT). Ruined a couple screens at first but then buddy got the exposure times dialed. Everything about this print was extremely costly, spending at least $100 on paper ALONE and don’t even get me started on the cost of doing 3 different color ways with acrylic paints. It seems whenever I do a print project I act as though money grows on trees, how irresponsible of me.... Other than the time constraints (god bless ocad studios but I am in desperate need of a 24/7 studio), the dolla bills and the stencil problems I loved doing this print again. 22x30 gotta be my favourite size to print at, it’s large enough to see fine detail clearly and give different perspective depending on distance looked at, but small enough that it’s accesbile for most to slap on a wall. This is a repeated stencil from my first large format attempt (further down blog) but I felt it was necessary to give this print some more attention. I changed a few things up by layering the stencils differently and making it an overall more maximalist print, also giving me further insight into what this project really means to me. Printing at this size gave me the oppurtunity to refine it and register it perfectly to how it originally should have looked on the canvas, but you know me, I love when prints get messed up. It shows they were done by hand and worked through, something you could never achieve with a digital print. Last thing, if you ever print large flats of color like I had to for the base layer, may god be with you.

“I want to be seen is heavily influenced by my friend who is a beautiful person through and through, but struggles with becoming comfortable around people, inhibiting his ability to show his true self. The three color ways represent the different personas he adapts in different social situations. The graphical composition made to reflect a camoflauge represents how he wants to stay hidden, but paired with the loud, striking colors represents how he wants to be seen, seen for how he genuinely is. I know many can relate to this, and I hope you find comfort in who you are. You need to do nothing but be you. ”