Hi, I’m Lizzy Arden
Visual Artist
I’m all about color & contrast, typography, evidence of the hand, simple design, and unusual things.
Mediums I work in:
Book Arts
My First Love
I cannot express the amount of love I have for this form of artistic expression. If you are unsure what an Artist Book is, please take the time to view these projects.
Graphic Design
My Rock
All of my work begins as a digital design and either continues down this path or transforms into something new. My design skills allow me to accurately plan and test my projects before deciding their fate.
Printmaking/ Papermaking
My Alter Ego
My love for printmaking began with the idea that I had more than one. That is the link between all the things I love. I can make as many as I want and I can share it with everyone while keeping a piece for myself.
Scroll for Quick View of Projects
19th Century Advise on ‘Marriage Or, How to Make Home Happy, Artist Book
Xerox photo copies onto velum, hand sewn white silk thread inclusions, red text hand typed from 1920’s Royal typewriter (2022)
“19th Century Advice on ‘Marriage, or How to Make a Happy Home'” is an altered book
intertwining text and found images of brides from the 1800’s with the first edition pocket book “The Marriage Ring, Or How to Make a Happy Home”.
This book was chosen for its historical significance because it discusses the norms and
expectations of marriage during the late 1800s. Areas of particular significance are highlighted with red brackets and underlined as part of the altering process. By viewing these past expectations it is illustrating the journey women have made over the last 150 years. The photos were found “in the wild” over several years by sifting through items at local San Diego estate sales and swap meets and are from the same time period as the book. This is important to emphasize so that the viewer understands how common these types of expressions are in cabinet card photography. The photos were re-printed onto vellum paper and then hand sewn with white silk thread, intentionally left untied and dangling out of the book to represent the unraveling of the purity/submissive state women were expected to be during this era.
Sweet-Talk, Artist Book
Inkjet printing, screen printing, Vandyke brown prints on pulp-painted abaca, monotypes, and letterpress printing (2019)
Sweet-Talk is about the internal battle of a women’s own perception and desires of herself. It uses text from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing to connect this idea of how a woman is always aware of her appearance no matter what task she may be doing. Going back and forth between negative and positives labels, this book explores self-image and the battle of being viewed as “an object” in society.
Sweet-Talk was created, printed and bound by Lizzy Arden at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA in the spring of 2019. This book incorporates inkjet printing on, screen printing, Van Dyke brown prints on pulp-painted abaca paper, monotypes, and letterpress printing. The text is excerpted from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing and is handset in 14pt. Perpetua.
Sweet-Talk was part of my thesis work I completed in the year of 2019. In Sweet-Talk, I positioned the text so that it is broken up through a series of photographs and prints. The photographs switch back and forth between cheerfully posed, colored photographs on soft Japanese Mulberry paper, and somber, monochromatic photos on rigid, transparent abaca paper. Each photo is accompanied by a larger word that is used to describe the female, such as “luminous”, “mesmeric” or “domineering”, “sullen,” and “noxious”. These are intended to be words directed at females either as desires, fears, or common labels. This book shows the split between the two selves of a woman. It is exposing the picture-perfect performance side and the vulnerable dark side of women that no one usually sees. This book puts the reader in the surveyor’s position, seeing all perspectives of a woman, both as an object and as herself. It is exposing how a woman may act differently for others, how she wants to be seen, how she views herself in private, how she can be viewed in a positive way or a negative way, and how she is aware of all of these perspectives, at all times.
A look into the process
Self Published Zines
An ongoing project. 2018-Current
A zine is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. Wikipedia
I started making zines while in grad school as a way to exercise ideas and play with creating short impacting pieces of writing. These are my favorite ways to push out ideas and get them out into the world quickly. I love how this process can be created by anyone & can also be made with little supply’s. Although I use Adobe Photoshop & Adobe InDesign to create my zines, I have taught workshops to others on how you can use found text, imagery, and how to bind them in a variety of ways.
Zines to Date: Sometimes (2018), The Trouble Was (2018), Bird. (2018), I Never Thought (2018), Empty (2020).
Technet Partners
Fleet Vehicle Wrap Design 2021
Technet revamped their branding in 2020. They redesigned their logo, website and sought out to redo their entire fleet wrap design. In prior years, Technet only had a simple door decal as their branding on their vehicles. After they completed their website and logo, they returned to SpeedPro for design assistance.
At the start of the project, they had no idea on what they wanted other than the color scheme and that they wanted it to be a full wrap with a “modern appearance”. After a lot of back and forth with CEO’s and stakeholders from Technet they approved my design. It was my goal to keep the design very simple and straight forward. They work with big companies like Amazon and Cox Cable, so minimal contact info was what they intended. The goal was to make an impact on the clients they currently work with to look more professional. I suggested they use a matte finish to add an extra modern look to the wrap.
All of their fleet vehicles are Mercedes Cargo Vans which was not the easiest model to design a wrap for. It has high grooves and oddly placed plastic pieces. After lot of work with installers and playing around on the vehicle templates we figured out a way to get the design to work without it being too distorted.
The design has been applied to over 25 vans at this point, in at least 3 different states. They order new wraps routinely and we expect this design to expand to all of their locations.
Mt. Helix Nature Preschool
Freelance Branding Project, 2020/2021
Mt Helix Nature Preschool is an outdoor based preschool located in Mt Helix La Mesa. Owner wanted the logo & branding to reflect the adventurous theme of the school, nature based elements, and requested the branding to be “kid friendly” and “gender neutral”.
This logo represents a child who is using a telescope. They have puffy hair to keep the gender to appear neutral. The book “Where the Wild Things Are” was the inspiration for the logo to invoke wonder and exploration. The child in the logo is siting on a leaf-like shape or even possibly a boat, its intended to be abstract.
The rest of the branding is following this same feeling of wonder and exploration. The color scheme was chosen to again, keep things neutral while still having a child-like feeling. The main colors are the two greens and orange and the rest of the colors are used as accents.
This business is still developing and I still do freelance work with them when they need things. Overall both the client and I are vary happy with the outcome of this project. Here is there website if you’d like to view more of the business: https://www.mthelixnaturepreschool.com/
Sheaths, Artist Book
Vandyke Brown Prints, Screen Printing, Letterpress, Handmade Paper , 2018
Sheaths incorporates VanDyke brown prints, screen prints and letterpress on handmade paper and Arches Platine paper. The text is a found poem made from spliced excerpts of The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, and was set and printed from 16 pt. Deepdene. Sheaths is about revealing the covered and suppressed areas of the mind and the themes of accepting or suppressing the second self within.
I often feel an internal disconnection between the person I see inside myself and the person that the rest of the world knows. At certain times, this way of thought leads me to feel a form of insanity and I question how normal that is. I don’t think Im alone in this. I tend to attract these same people into my life. I am always surrounded by people who carry this second self around and they tend to let it get the best of them. I think this issue is fairly common, from minor cases to extreme. Sadly, It is often brushed off in our society and many people go untreated. Most of us accept this as who we are and never think twice about it.
I came across Sylvia Plath’s, The Bell Jar, in high school and it has haunted me on and off ever since. Her writings reflect the beauty and horror of insanity and depression. Her work has inspired me for years in my own writings and art. In Sheaths, I used spliced sentences of Plath’s and my own voice to create a new story of a similar nature. In Sheaths, I represent my two selves in the form of a red duck and abstract prints of myself. I always use a bird or multiple birds to represent myself. I do this because of my personal connection and obsession with these animals. I use them for their beauty, their symbolic nature of freedom, and their loyalty to their owners. In this book, I use a duck because of the connection to water and hunting. Their feathers often echo their environment in order to camouflage themselves from predators. Moreover, they normally live in still waters that reflect the space around. I find these themes relatable because I often I try to camouflage myself from others by my appearance. The theme of reflection is interesting to me because of how it casts reality. Yet, sometimes our perception is altered and we don’t always perceive the same thing as everyone else. Psychological disorders relate to this topic as well. Often, I spend time gazing into mirrors thinking about perception and how it is altered from one person to the other. I often find myself attempting to wrap my mind around the various possibilities of thought. I am interested in self-perception versus community perception and how these themes relate to the issues we face in society. Spending too much time looking at oneself can cause someone to create an ego or disesteem about themselves. I believe that too much self-reflection can damage the inner mind.
Sheaths ventures into the psyche and touches on the subject of self reflection and the multiple sides to our personality. I use a vibrant red and a mellow pale blue to represent this contrast to the different selves. The red and blue paper is handmade and the white is Arches Platine. The red and blue images are printed silkscreen. There are four Van Dyke photographs throughout the book. Three of the four photos, are double exposed images of myself with scenes of the woods to represent emotional overgrowth and the unknown. The text is handset in Perpetua and is printed letterpress. It is bound drumbleaf, so that it exposes the entire spread to the reader. Sheaths is about revealing the covered and suppressed areas of the mind and the themes of accepting or suppressing the second self within.
Reflections, Artist Book
Reflections was created, printed and bound by Lizzy Arden at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA in the fall of 2018. This book incorporates inkjet printing and letterpress. The text is excerpted from Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and is handset in Cloister & Deepdene.
The text was chosen because it positions the reader at multiple perspectives, requiring the reader to look at things differently, as well as for its historical symbolism for comparison and all of the gray areas in between . Reflections, portrays the warped perception of oneself and embodies the recurrence of pessimistic thoughts. The plant pictured is Basil, which represented hate during the Victorian era.
Workshops & Teaching
Yes, I’m happy to spread my knowledge! I have worked with people of all ages in academic settings as well as in public spaces. I can usually work around any budget.
Topics: Book binding & Letterpress, Printmaking (Intaglio, Screen Printing, Relief), Papermaking (Western), Alternative Photography (Cyanotypes, VanDyke Brown), Basics of Adobe Programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign).
Lizzy Arden 