Taylor Bowen

title (not yet)
Book Arts Concentration

Using the powerful element of communication, the printed word, I will highlight issues related to the Chicano experience. At present I am exploring political, cultural and even personal sources to identify issues that I would like to discuss. Topics that I am currently touching upon include: human trafficking, immigration and police brutality. With these topics I am trying to find the middle ground to get a conversation started on both sides.

previous (22 August 2016) —

For my senior thesis I will be focusing on creating art based on the current problems with the human trafficking system. This was something that I had largely focused on last semester and would like to continue with this topic throughout the next year. Last semester, I had made a book that focused on stories of seven human trafficking victims. During my research for that book I found that a lot of the human trafficking victims were from Mexico and forced into labor trafficking. Labor trafficking makes up a large number of the illegal immigrants that are coming into this country. They are often promised good jobs with good pay and becoming American citizens. This is a huge problem in American and I would like to do anything I can to help shine a bigger light on this problem.

There are a handful of organizations that use art as a way to spread awareness of Human Trafficking. I have been looking into those groups to help better understand what would be a good way to express these problems through art. A lot of the work that artist do to spread awareness have been really expressive, strong and bold. These are things that I will be trying to achieve with my work for the next year. For a lot of the work that I made last semester I mainly used letterpress. Letterpress is something I really enjoy doing. It is something that I find to be relaxing, which is why I would like to continue to do letterpress printed books. I will not limit myself to just this one medium, though. I will work with whatever works best with the pieces I will be making. I would like to make a few books, but I also want to make a few larger scale conceptual pieces.

earlier (May 2016) —

For the last two semesters I have been working on pieces that focus on police brutality and human trafficking. I have also done a little exploration of letterforms and how type interacts with each other. These are two areas that I am interested in and would like to further my exploration throughout the summer and into the next school year.

I am going to broaden my topics and work on things other than police brutality and human trafficking. I will be spending the summer researching other human and civil rights issues and making art pieces in response to see what will pique my interest.

My main medium is letterpress and that is something that I would like to continue working with, but I am not opposed to working with other mediums. As a Book Arts major I will be making books, but I am open to exploring other ways to view my art.