An ode to nature’s gentle touch, Where the lips of dawn meet meadows in a loving clutch, A warm and caring grace, The soul returns to its actual, tranquil space.
Today, I had the pleasure of sharing my most recent photography project -“Kiss The Earth!” This project is an exploration of the profound connection between humanity and nature, a visual journey that seeks to rekindle that timeless bond, reminding us to return to our roots.
The inspiration for this project came from a deep yearning to capture the raw and unadulterated essence of nature. It’s all too easy to forget our intrinsic connection to the natural world. “Kiss The Earth” serves as a visual reminder, urging us to reconnect with the Earth’s beauty and power. Through my lens, I aimed to remind viewers to embrace the simplicity and grandeur of nature and rediscover their own beginnings.
# find more of my photography works on Instagram: @dsu.photoart
Q: How has being mixed affected your campus experience?
A: It was a bit of culture shock coming to the Midwest, coming from a small, predominantly Latinx neighborhood. I get homesick very often, and my mixed identity made me a bit insecure about engaging with Latinx campus organizations initially because of my upbringing and my appearance, but many of the Latinx individuals involved are very welcoming and I appreciate all the acceptance I’ve encountered.
Q: What do you wish more people knew about the mixed experience?
A: The mixed experience is very unique for everybody, and there is a vibrant perspective many mixed identities can offer! Everyone is approaching their mixed identity differently, and mixed people should not be forced to choose or represent one ethnicity/race or the other. There are many complexities that come with a mixed identity!
Q: What is your proudest moment?
A: As a Latina first generation college student who struggles with disability, making it to college in the first place is something I will always be proud of myself for achieving. My parents had no idea how any of the application process worked, and neither did I. But somehow I figured it out, and now I’m here!
Q: What kind of person do you aspire to be?
A: I want to be unapologetic about myself. I’m not quite there yet, but I want to be someone who owns their personality loudly, especially with bold makeup, a colorful wardrobe, and who doesn’t care what others have to say about myself.
Mixed on Campus was inspired by the Humans of New York project. The purpose of Mixed on Campus is to give a voice to this university’s mixed community and shed light on its members. Being mixed means to be multiracial, multiethnic, and/or a transnational adoptee. Through Mixed on Campus, mixed students have the opportunity to have their portrait drawn and share their experiences!
Hello everyone! This is my very first post on People Watching. I actually struggled a lot when trying to come up with who/where to draw for my first post, so I ended up going in a pretty simple direction. Each of the students I drew was spotted walking (or skateboarding) in front of the UMMA and Union on Wednesday October 18th, 2023. I really enjoyed just using marker here but a goal for the future is to branch out into more colorful illustrations that still feel consistent with my style.
Hello everyone! My name is Marissa Woods and I am so excited to be returning to Arts, ink. this year as an artist and writer. Last year my content primarily focused on my illustration work and relatable content for students on campus. This year, I am taking the leap of journaling about my fiber arts practice. I plan on posting different techniques i am studying so you readers can learn along side me. This is a great opportunity for me to be able to log my progress over the year, as well as create more community awareness about fiber arts and the various topics I am passionate about.
I am going to cover a variety of topics such as weaving, sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, tapestry, etc. I plan to inform you readers on how to do them! My ultimate goal is to teach. Occasionally I’ll have free patterns uploaded for you to try on your own at home. I encourage you to become involved with fibers, it can be a great outlet and art form.
Our first topic, fiber slashing! (Sewing). I love the texture that this technique beings to the fabric. I am a huge fan of frayed ends and loose threads. This specific piece in the image was inspired by the women’s reproductive system. I am currently taking a women’s health course, which has majorly broadened my perspective. Feminism and fiber arts go hand in hand the more you look into its history. I will write more on this topic later!
In order to to do this technique on your own at home, 1. Lay 1 piece of fabric down 2. Lay a billion different little scraps of fabric on top of the first piece. 3. Layer a top piece of fabric, the same size as the first piece. 4. Sew with a machine around the border of your fabric sandwich, locking your inner fabics inside of a closed pocket. 5. Sew up and down, equally spaced apart, about 1/2 inch. (The wider the stitch gaps, the more fabric will come out when you get to the slashing. A smaller width can make it too small to get the fabric to pull up and out of the slash. 6. Using a seam ripper, CAREFULLY! rip into the top layer of fabric in the in between spaces. Be sure not to accidentally rip all the way through your back panel. If this happens, you may add additional stitching by hand on the back to re-form the support layer. Experiment with ripping into different layers of the fabric, instead of staying at the same depth! 7. Go crazy! Pull as many fibers as you would like to be frayed or pull out which specific colors interest you the most!
I hope everyone enjoyed this week’s first post! I am so excited to continue sharing my practice as well as educate about fiber arts! See you next Fiber Friday!
Hello, and welcome back to another week of Industrious Illustrating! Last week I talked about profit margins on mass-produced art merchandise, but that’s only part of the equation. This week I’m going to give a brief introduction to different types of manufacturers/suppliers who can produce your merchandise for you so that you don’t have to front the cost of expensive equipment yourself. For my merchandise specifically, I’ve ordered directly from manufacturers as well as through middlemen.
For absolute beginners, there’s Print on Demand services like Redbubble that do all the manufacturing and deliver merchandise directly to your customers for you, but they take a large chunk of the revenue (even larger than using a paid storefront like Etsy!) and the quality of their merchandise is harder to keep under your control. I don’t personally use these services, but they’re more accessible to artists who are just starting out with selling merch than ordering directly from manufacturers, especially as you don’t also need to purchase shipping supplies and fulfill orders on your own time.
Redbubble’s logo
For beginners who want to get a start on making their own merchandise and selling it directly through an online store or at conventions, Vograce is a Chinese manufacturer that specializes in acrylic charms but also does a lot of different merchandise types, all with very low MOQs and a relatively accessible website through Shopify. However, Vograce is a middleman for non-acrylic products (meaning that they charge more than directly ordering from the manufacturers they source from) and also has experienced a decline in quality in recent years because of an increasingly large number of orders. (By the way, the decline in quality that manufacturers sometimes experience when receiving too many new orders is why a lot of artists are reluctant to disclose their manufacturers publicly!) I’d advise ordering through Vograce only if you don’t want to spend time researching other manufacturers and are willing to accept the risk of receiving defective products.
Vograce’s logo
Middlemen are agents or companies that contact manufacturers on your behalf and help you set up and fulfill your merch orders for an additional cost. In fact, the case study I went over last week (my bottle cap pins) was ordered through a middleman who has a direct line of contact with a Chinese factory and did the file-checking and payment on my behalf. Some advantages of going through a middleman include tighter quality control, saving the time needed to vet manufacturers for quality, and being able to try out more types of merchandise that otherwise might require high risk and investment costs. Specifically, I was in a group order with other artists, so we could all order smaller quantities of merch and hit minimum order quantity (MOQ) as a group rather than fundraise for a large order or take a risk by paying out of pocket for hundreds of items that may or may not actually sell.
Directly ordering from manufacturers is generally the cheaper option over using a middleman, as you’re only paying for the time and supplies used by the manufacturer instead of also paying for the time and expertise of a middleman. The site I personally use for finding manufacturers is Alibaba, a website meant for businesses to directly source from manufacturers located around the world (although mostly located in China). Generally, Chinese manufacturing has lower prices and more specialized products than you can order domestically.
Alibaba’s logo
There are some American manufacturers you can directly order products like acrylic charms and pins from, but they may not have as many options available and could end up being significantly more expensive. If they aren’t more expensive, there’s a good chance that they’re actually middlemen sourcing from China rather than actually manufacturing domestically (a common bait-and-switch with enamel pin companies specifically). I only order my prints (and, when I still sold them, stickers) through US companies for this reason, as they actually print domestically rather than having an incentive to secretly order specialized products from abroad. In terms of US-based printing companies, I definitely highly recommend CatPrint for their low MOQs, high quality printing, variety of paper types available, and relatively fast turn-around.
Catprint’s logo
However, some manufacturers have high MOQ for their products — possibly 100 units per order or more — that make them prohibitively difficult to order from as an individual. You’ll also have to do all the communication yourself, which means dealing with a language barrier if you’re (most likely) working with a Chinese manufacturer even though they have English-speaking representatives who’ll communicate with you. Alibaba can also be a difficult and overwhelming website to navigate if you don’t already know what you’re looking for, and you’ll likely have to both do your own research and ask around for price quotes on your merch orders to figure out what your best options are.
That’s all for today’s brief-ish introduction to manufacturing! I may go into this topic again in more depth at some point, but I’ll also want to talk about other topics first before I come back to this. I hope to see you guys again for next week’s column!
