During my senior year, I worked on a project that considered the relationship between the people who made their lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts and the physical and natural environment over four centuries. The title, Smells Like Money, is a local expression that comes from the constant smell of low tide and bait in the area; for locals, that is the smell of their main source of income. My interdisciplinary project uses historical research and graphic design to connect my background of involvement with the North Shore fishing and shipbuilding industries. My research began with determining the main industries that grew out of the North Shore area and tracing their development back to the environment and the natural resources that the North Shore uniquely provides. I conducted research both using online resources as well as archives from several museums that preserve the history of Cape Ann. The graphic design portion of this project is a poetic visualization of my research and writing. The art industry that developed out of Cape Ann grew out of the beauty of the area and included a strong presence of the working industries of the time such as the granite, fishing, and building industries. Artists such as Fitz Henry Lane and the Folly Cove Designers used inspiration from the area in their paintings and wood block prints. Led by Virginia Lee Burton Demetrios, The Folly Cove Designers started as a group of mainly women living in the Folly Cove area with little to no artistic training, but were urged to use their surroundings as inspiration and draw what they see. With their drawings they carved and created wood block prints that were used in the textile industries. To honor the history of their crafts I have created wood block prints of the natural world, determined from my research, over watercolor washes to represent the industries of the North Shore.

​

See my research paper and the final presentation designed in a 2021 calendar here: