When I woke up on November 9, 2016, I felt exhausted, sad, and powerless, both as a woman and as an immigrant. But after watching Hillary Clinton’s concession speech, I felt differently - energized to stand up, take action, and put in the work that is needed to fight for equality and respect for women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, Muslims, and anyone whose freedoms are threatened under this new administration. Hillary’s speech made me want to lend my hands to that work in whatever way I could, and I felt a need to create art with a positive, action-oriented message.
One quote resonated above all the rest: “Never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.” Creating an initial short run of prints carrying the quote back in November motivated me to bring this project to life on a larger scale and reach more people, which led to my Kickstarter Make/100 project this January, which encouraged creators to produce an edition of items with the aim of reaching 100 backers. I developed the quote design into a collection of letterpress prints, notecards, and tote bags, I was totally overwhelmed by the response! I hit my financial goal within the first 24 hours, and by the end of the two-week funding period had reached nearly 150 backers from all over the world. It was an amazing experience and I'm beyond excited to get into the studio and start printing! I'm hugely indebted to the amazing team at Kickstarter who awarded me a Project We Love badge and featured the project in their Happenings e-newsletter which goes out to an audience of thousands!
You can check out the The Chain Press Kickstarter journey here, and I'll be sharing the designs here as soon as they're off the press!