Week 3 Sketchbook Stencil

My stencil was a picture of a rose because I forgot the print out of my original stencil at home. My original stencil was a picture of an older black woman with a handkerchief on her head. For me, this symbol held a special place in my heart because it shows the long road of adversity that my ancestors had to face as an African, as an American, as a slave, and as a woman. Her old age symbolized wisdom and also a connection to the motherland, where I personally believe all African American people should go one day in order to really take a look back at history. It reminds me of the same thought of Aztlan, an original place that we call home and and where we will return when we die. The figure of the woman was very detailed and probably would have taken me a long time since this was my first time every creating a stencil.
The rose stencil that I used came out better than I expected and I was really glad that I took my time to cut out each piece. I think a rose had its own symbol within itself. A rose can meet beauty, hardship, love, peace, overcoming obstacles to get to the beautiful, etc. Personally, I believe all those meanings are tied in together so the rose ended up being a perfect stencil to put on the front of my book.