I've had a difficult time staying productive and creative throughout the pandemic, aside from doing some printmaking which served as a sort of therapy for me. Lately, I've been able to do some different projects due to a couple commissions, but before that, I felt like I was really struggling to create anything that felt worthwhile or meaningful.
Music has always been the most comforting art form for me, so it makes sense that it is one form of art that has inspired and help me find my footing throughout the pandemic, and in turn, it's no surprise that a few pieces that have helped me find my artistic groove again have been music-related. Here is one of them.
Currently, I'm running a t-shirt campaign through Everpress featuring this design based on Lady Gaga's song/video 911. Everpress is a screen printing/digital printing company that focuses on the reduction of waste by holding preorders for a 30 day period, so that only the number of items that are needed are produced. This means that each design campaign is only available for 30 days! That means these shirts are available until March 25.
All profits of the campaign will be donated to Trans Women of Color Collective and the National Center for Transgender Equality.
The design evolved a lot, as it began as a circular tattoo design commission. I simply couldn't help myself and it turned into what you see above.
The tattoo was commissioned to be "some sort of imagery from the 911 video." Upon reviewing the video, I kept coming back to the image of Lady Gaga rising above herself holding a flower. I immediately saw it as an art nouveau piece, and started from there.
After the tattoo design, I began trying to manipulate the design to mimic the colors and layout of an art nouveau piece.
Later I found out about Everpress and decided to kick the design up a notch by changing the design to reflect the colors of Lady Gaga's Chromatica in the style of art nouveau, while using only a few solid colors instead of many different colors/gradients in light of the design being printed.