The Language of Hands

Artist Bio

Isabel Morales is a current sophomore in the School of Media and Design with a major in Graphic Design and a minor in marketing. As a sophomore she won a bronze ADDY under the AAF (American Advertising Foundation) in illustration for the same project she’s submitted here and is looking to create even more impressive work in her upcoming junior year.

Interview with the Artist

1. What was your inspiration for this piece?

I personally find how we utilize our hands to communicate as a second language to be romantic and beautiful as a form of connection. When words fail us sometimes all we have is our hands to tell how much we love and hurt, and that’s something I was interested in sharing through this piece.

2. What is your creative process? (How do you go about creating?)

Class has really made me more conscious of my creative process, which is unfortunately not very streamlined. Usually, I get stuck between two ideas and spend a while developing both through sketches before I’m forced to pick due to the workload. I fall behind often, so it’s usually during the final week where I find my footing, which happened here. I’m trying to work on my process for next semester over the summer.

3. What are some influences on your artistic process?

For this specific piece I can’t say I had much inspiration beyond wanting to use sculpture, my art history classes have made me favor styles and subject matter related to Greece and other movements so you can see that here with the sculptures. I don’t often have specific influences, but my professors have started making us create process books as we work so it’s made me more consciously look for inspiration lately.

4. Is there anything more you’d like our readers/viewers to know about you or your work?

I almost did something completely different aesthetic wise because I was originally focused on hand signs, but I’m glad I went with this because it better gets across how I felt about my concept. Also, the flowers in the images all have meanings tied to the theme of each poster, which might come up in future works because I love flower language.