Task 4: Potato Printing

Reflection

What a fun task! I was glad I had a choice between printing potatoes and writing manually. I have always preferred typing over writing manually as I can quickly ‘fix’ and edit mistakes or add ideas and make changes as I proofread my work. I am literate in print media. Back in university, I took several courses on printmaking and during my CFE (Community Field Experience) at UBC, my peers and I hosted outdoor learning for a Day Care and one of the activities was potato printing (see below). This activity should be straight-forward – carve, paint, and stamp.

The first thing I did was to list out a few five-letter words. Once I decided to carve the word ‘relax,’ I wrote it in a mirrored fashion on the sticky note (luckily, the letters E, A, and X are replicated). The most challenging aspect of this process was drawing the outline on the flesh of the potatoes and keeping the letters the same size. I did not follow my tracing completely as the marker tracing was quite thin so I purposely left more space around my outline. Once I had my stamps, I packed them in a paper bag for them to dry and waited to continue the stamping process the next day during my prep (I had left the acrylic paint at school). Stamping was tricky, after my first attempt: RE – for ‘REDO’. I needed to apply more paint to get all the corners before applying pressure consistently from left to right.

Time and Mechanization of Writing

The entire process took about 30 minutes. The letters E, L, and X were much easier than R and A. Letters with curved lines and counters were more labor-intensive than ones with straight lines. It generally takes me hours to produce text on paper – perfecting my penmanship. Writing, to me, is very personal. Below is an example of my notes from a Chemistry course. I tend to highlight to organize my writing and include visuals to help with comprehension.

After this activity, I certainly appreciate the convenience of mechanized writing. If it took me 30 minutes to carve 5 letters, it would take approximately 156 minutes (2.6 hours) just to cut 26 letters of the alphabet.