101 Petals

Background

Al Rashid Education Foundation (AREF) is an Edmonton-based organization, supporting undergraduate and post-graduate students of visible minorities through scholarships. Each year, students are awarded for their academic and leadership achievement at a gala, hosted by the foundation. As a member of AREF’s Board of Trustees, I understand the significance of donors’ support, without which, the organization would not be able to provide support to students. As a thank you to our donors, we send out plaques of recognition. To further emphasize our deep appreciation for donors’ generosity, a ‘thank you’ card usually accompanies each plaque.

This year, our ‘thank you’ cards tell our donors a story about the impact that their support has had.

I started by asking: how can I show donors the impact they have had on the many students who received AREF awards? I knew that over a period of 6 years, 95 students were awarded 101 scholarships. This information helped with my initial sketches of the card’s idea.

I decided to draw 6 flowers to represent each year in which AREF awards were presented to students. Each flower has a certain number of petals, which correspond to the number of scholarships awarded that year.

I decided to make a print in order to reproduce the design multiple times for all the donors. I used a linoleum block to create the print.

To create a block print, the image to be carved is first traced onto a piece of linoleum sheet. The linoleum sheet is then hand-carved using a linoleum cutter.