Lino-printing Ania's Flag

Ania asked her flag design to be something jolly and representing growth.

After some back and forth with different digital designs featuring flowers and vegetables with a smiley face, Ania decided that she preferred the carrots, so I made this linocut plate based on the digital design.

I printed the plate on card in Ania's chosen colours; blue, yellow, orange and green:

Ania said she preferred these colour combinations:

I also printed in Ania's chosen colours on fabric:

Of the fabric prints, Ania's two favourite colour combinations were these:

My next step is to create the final version of her flag, which I have been mulling over given the eight different options for colour combinations she expressed. Given that three if the designs she selected featured yellow and blue, and fourth featured a very yellow-y orange and blue - I think I am going to print Ania's final flag in the colours of the Ukrainian flag - also because she mentioned that she found solice in displaying the Ukraine flag in her apartment in Switzerland where she is living as a refugee. I've realised that these flags are so reductive in nature that they can only capture a snapshot of a person's full identity - and given that her current living situation has been hugely influenced by the war (she would otherwise still be living in Ukraine) it feels appropriate to represent that current circumstance in the flag I am creating for her now.