My printmaking work is themed around plastic pollution and recycling. My work includes printing skills such as screen printing, lino printing, and dry point. My work size varies from A5 to A1 sheets, and I printed onto fabric as well. I made my prints while investigating the theme of plastic pollution and the environment. For my reduction lino I used the colours white, yellow, tuscany yellow, magenta, cyan, ash grey, and black. My design consists of flowers that symbolise the key elements of plastic pollution for me. I plan to stitch or staple small pieces of plastic onto my fabric prints, drawing the attention onto the rose and the idea of plastic being drawn to the theme of death and destruction. This will give me the textures of plastic and hopefully add another dimension to my print. The fabric I’m printing onto is a cotton polyester blend fabric. I’m using this particular fabric because it contains plastic, and it in itself is contributing to plastic pollution and this way it’s being recycled. I’ve also used recycled items such as plastic bags, cotton fabric, and staples, making my work a part of the recycling movement. The black rose represents the death and destruction of nature and how plastics are damaging and killing the earth from our usage, links to microbes that represent the death of animals and organisms. The iris symbolises hope and trust; the trust that the planet can rebuild itself. The colour white is the colour most regarded with plastics. The yellow and orange sunflower symbolises strength and power of recycling movements. It also goes along with my idea of looking at something from a distance and it seeming positive until you get closer and realise it’s not as happy as it seems. Plastic harms many ecosystems and millions of animals every year, whether it be through entanglement or ingestion of plastic in plants or their prey. Microplastics are the most deadly, and have been ingested by more than a hundred aquatic species, including fish, shrimp, and mussels. The threat of microplastics is so high because they follow through the food chain. For example, if fish consume microplastics, the octopus that eats (many of) those fish consumes a larger amount, therefore the shark or human even, that eats that octopus (or many octopuses) will then consume even more microplastics until it becomes deadly. Plastics are also being consumed by land animals, as well as causing damage to animal’s reproductive systems, meaning they could be at risk for extinction. One of my artist influences is Sybil Andrews, who is best known for her unique styled linocuts. Sybil Andrews uses space in a unique way in her prints. What makes her sense of space unique is that she doesn’t use natural perspective, rather there’s a flow of line movement within her lino prints. Her prints are also very dynamic, conveying a clear sense of direction, although usually an unnatural direction. Sybil Andrews always uses simplistic, but bold colours in her prints, usually around four or five colours, however, some of her prints have many layers with repeated colours or often she’d use different shades of the same colour to add to the dimension and the tonal value.