West Michigan Area Show

I was honored to receive the Kalamazoo Art League award for Border Police, my entry to the West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

The image was inspired by a conversation I had with one of my students over print borders. Printmakers are traditionally very particular about having large, very clean borders around their work. The student asked me if there are any hard and fast rules regarding print borders and I said "No, there aren't any border police," to which she responded "I wish that were true in real life."

It's hard to see in this photo, but the outer border of this print is covered with smudges and fingerprints that are "walking" around the wall, and one set of fingerprints has breached the wall at the lower right side, to the offense of the guards. The entire image is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comparison between printmaking and "real life."

Thanks again to the Kalamazoo Art League for their recognition.

Printing Fabric

Last summer I bought Jan Hewett's book Print Pattern Sew. These are photos of my first project using her methods. The image is drawn from some sprigs of rosemary from my garden. I printed about 2 1/2 yards on cotton muslin.

I think I'll use this to sew one of the blouse patterns from Hewett's book. It's a great opportunity to combine printmaking with my sewing hobby! It's not the greatest color but I was just trying to mix a quick green tint from the colors available in the Print Studio.

Prints at KIA Holiday Sale

The Kalamazoo Institute of Art Holiday Sale is next weekend and faculty are asked to put work in a "Collector's Gallery." Below are the prints I'm putting in. The first is a new four-color intaglio print based on some photos I took of my friend Laura Pitts' garden last summer. I intend to do a series of these.

The second is about a year old; it is a wood lithograph of  a tree growing up through an abandoned windmill. I saw this on Indiana Route 13, driving down to visit my son at Manchester University.

Barbara Nohinek workshop

A monoprint from the Barbara Nohinek workshop I attended last Saturday at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. We learned a lot of layering techniques using Akua inks, printing woodblocks on paper and acrylic.

Steamroller print day

These are some photos from the Under Pressure steamroller print event at Western Michigan University at the end of October. Participants carved  60" x 40" woodblocks which were printed with the aid of a steamroller.

The theme of the event was "Call and Response." This the print I did with the help of fellow printmaker Donna Groot. In this shot it's drying on the floor.

And here are some of the many prints hanging in the atrium of the fine arts building at Western.

Reformation Broadsheet

This is a large (36" x 16") etching I did to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The artist's statement reads:

"This is a copperplate etching commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. It is inspired by a Reformation Centenary broadsheet produced in Leipzig, Germany in 1617. As a printmaker, I've always been cognizant of the role printmaking played in the modernization of society when it was still a new technology in the 16th and 17th centuries. Most scholars credit the success of the Reformation in part to the use of this new technology to disseminate information. 

Reformation era broadsheets were complex, crowded, compositions filled with historical, political, and sacred figures, and my broadsheet follows this tradition. It is based on the Biblical passage Matthew 25: 31-46 (Christ's separation of the sheep and the goats) and the social justice issues implied by this passage. The 'do -it-yourself'' sheep and goat masks at the bottom of the composition invite viewers to contemplate their own place in the scene."

Below is the 1617 print that inspired my work.

The etching is currently at the Battle Creek Center for the Arts, in the exhibit The Reformation Remembered- Artistic Expressions of Faith. I was honored to receive an award, "Best Interpretation of Theme." Here's a  link to the Art Center: http://www.artcenterofbattlecreek.org/exhibitions.html

Allegan County Historical Print Shop 2017

Here's a shot of me working at the Chandler-Price press during the Allegan County Fair this year. The Allegan Historical Society Print Shop is open during the Michigan FiberFest in August and the County Fair in September. Every year we have a few more improvements and another piece of equipment functioning.