As an artist, sometimes generating ideas take lots of work and sometimes ideas hit me like a knuckle sandwich. This one was definitely a knuckle sandwich idea. I was snacking on a bell pepper one day when I thought, "what if peppers could crunch us back?" Suddenly, the image of a bell pepper with teeth growling at me popped into my head and I knew that I had to get it on paper. While I was learning printmaking, I decided that it was the perfect medium to really bring this idea to life. So, I did some sketches to then transfer to my linoleum plate and got to work carving.
I did some test prints in black and white to make sure my plate was perfect, and then produced my prints with colored ink.
The prints turned out better than I could have imagined. I titled them "Yikes" as that is the reaction most people would have their first time encountering the growling pepper. My professor loved them so much she hung a copy in her dining room.
I then decided to vectorize the print and turn it into stickers. I printed one very large copy of the vector and stuck it on my professor's door and put shredded paper in it's mouth for a funny prank. I called it "you just got peppered!"
I wanted to take the prank idea to the next level by creating more stickers and apparel for a potential viral trend. This print grew more and more fun as I did more things with the idea and it might be the most fun project I've ever completed.
