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.