Mary Prendergast
University of Notre Dame

Patternity

Biography: Mary Prendergast received her BFA in graphic design from the University of Notre Dame in May. She grew up in Washington D.C. but has always considered herself a Californian, and has now moved back to the place of her birth. Mary’s loves include bookmaking, the letterpress, ampersands, and beating her professors at bowling. She has high hopes that she won’t trip on the way to the stage.

Objective: Patternity is an examination of the impact of fathers on their daughters in life and love. It uses the language of sewing to approach the six psychologist related patterns in intimacy that result from specific types of father behavior. Each pattern displays a woman and her father, and each piece within the patterns is a behavior that she may be prone to due to that formative relationship. The text incorporates case studies, psychologist quotes, and statistics. My hope is that women realize the impact their fathers had and continue to have on their lives, so that they can reconcile with them, seek counseling, or simply reconsider their romantic attachments.

Tools used: I have never used anything but Adobe software to create print pieces. It is the backbone on which I create every project. Specifically for Patternity, I used Adobe® Illustrator® to create detailed figure drawings from photographs I manipulated in Adobe Photoshop®. I also made schematics and display proposals to better explain my plans for the exhibit. I used Adobe InDesign® to create an accompanying book that was displayed in the museum as well.