I started this project during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and finished it just as things were starting to get back to normal here in Australia. At the start of the pandemic, I felt a sense of listlessness and an inability to be productive. It took a couple of weeks to process what was happening to the world but I eventually felt the desire to make something personal. I decided to take my time with it, seeing as I had a lot of it, and consider every line and curve. I initially had no ideas on what the subject matter could be, and just began researching. Libraries were closed so I looked through the books I had, and dug through a lot of online library archives.
During this time I discovered the Library of Congress, which has an amazing online collection of rare books. A lot of the artwork that I'm drawn to often comes from the 15-17th century and their digital archives were heaven. I logged around 30 hours exploring nearly every single book in the rare collections category. I came across an artwork of Saint Augustine from an old Library of Congress exhibit called Heavenly Craft and was drawn to the composition, which became the inspiration for my print. I wanted to make something in appreciation of animals, that also touched on the issues of the Australian bushfires and the pandemic.
Research is the easiest part of starting a project, and reminds me of the act of digging for gold or perhaps a truffle pig searching for truffles. However coming up with ideas and then translating those ideas through sketching is difficult, especially when it's something I'm doing for myself. I went through a lot of iterations. I also hadn't included this many animals in one print before and wasn't exactly sure if I could pull it off. Once I had developed a good enough sketch, I then scanned it and brought it into Adobe Illustrator to further refine. Overall from research to printing, it took over 100 hours! I don’t usually spend this long on one print, however it certainly helped me stay sane during this strange period in time.
