Life is Wonderful for "Interpretations" by Taliah Lempert

Kitchen Litho with hand coloring; 2025

23x17 framed in chrome poster frame

"I was drawn to this photograph of course because of the bike, but also the everyday poetry in it — a bike locked in front of a plywood wall, with the words “Life is wonderful” scrawled above it. There’s a tension there that felt true: something beautiful and hopeful sitting inside something rough, temporary, unfinished. In my work, bikes are not just objects. They’re symbols of movement, energy, and personal momentum. A bike is self-powered; it moves because you do. That’s always been meaningful to me. I made my piece using Kitchen Lithography, my favorite printmaking technique. I drew the bike from life onto aluminum foil to create the plate, then printed it over a field of hand-drawn hearts. I chose to let the text go — to bring forward the part of the message that felt the most honest to me: that even in the middle of construction, disruption, or waiting, there can still be joy and forward motion. So my piece isn’t a reproduction. It’s a conversation — carrying the same sincerity forward in my own language."