Jenna Tomasello

I recently became a mother and am still learning how to keep my artistic practice balanced with new motherhood and all of life’s demands. With only small fragments of time to work on personal projects, I have found it difficult to deep dive into creative flow. My solution for this, has been to illustrate pre-existing ideas and concepts, using my physical artistic skills without exhausting myself mentally. In the past year, I have illustrated the zodiac and am currently working on painting a tarot deck.

I have turned the new zodiac illustrations into a bandana design, making this the seventh bandana pattern in my collection. I create all of my bandana patterns by hand and typically show the original paintings alongside their prints.

I sketch my bandana designs on a large sheet of paper, repeating the pattern using tracing paper and a light table, and paint the finished design in acrylic paint. The painting is then scanned, and the digital file is used to create the screen for printing. My screen printing is done in South Tucson by the union print shop, The Gloo Factory. The cotton bandanas sewn by the fair trade, women’s co-op, DouglaPrietaWorks, in Agua Prieta, Sonora.