Story #2- Visiting Artist at Miami U (Ohio) and my new summer job

My next gig right after the Southern Graphics Conference was being Visiting Artist in printmaking at Miami University, Oxford, OH. Thanks to the generosity of prof Ellen Price and her grads and students, I was able to borrow a litho stone for several months, then come back and print it.

here I am drawing on the stone- took me over a month for that little guy!

the drawing, about finished

to my surprise, I walk into Miami U and find my very own poster- wow, that's a first!

but we get right to work- here I am, gumming a stone

with grads John and Kate

the other grad, Steve comes in to check things out. I also got to give a crit to the print class and show my own work

now getting ready to wash out the stone, with spectators!

there goes my image!

buffing in the asphaltum

now, giving it some sass- that always helps

and here I declare that hand fans are for dummies!

rolling it up, slowly

explaining how it opens up, perhaps?

group inspection

ahh, sponge-man! it's Adam- my trusty sponger

still rolling

and here is a lovely shot- litho vision with Ellen and her students

but boy oh boy was that a mean leather roller- it gave me litho stigmata!

here we go, day 2. Adam comes back for more as my sponger- and a very good one, I might add!

I get to rolling

Emily is my paper gal, and we inspect the first proofs

sponge sniffer!

aww, my poor assistants are getting tired! this stone gives us a bit of trouble

back to work with John- looking very concerned

cranking down the pressure

love this picture- look at the mirror image!

and inspecting- we are finally getting some good ones!

now John is rolling- this grad put in so much hard work, blood and sweat- I can't thank him enough for all his help!

and here she is, the final print!

and bye bye stone- it's back to the graining sink for you

Adam has an interesting print project- printing a scroll by foot

here they come

a long line of Teddies!

now I get to talk to Steve Garst's Design/Letterpress class about print co-ops in Ohio and Tiger Lily Press. then a tour of their shop

here are the students, hard at work

Steve asks them to clean those rollers!

some nice posters on the wall

So that concludes my litho visit. Sure enjoyed getting to work on a stone- finally for the first time in 3 years! Loved working with the students as well. Who knows- this might be a thing- I could travel around the country attending to neglected stones at many universities!

Okay, I promised a few posts ago to discuss my interview if it went well…and it did! I am very pleased to announce my new gig as summer editioning intern at Island Press, Wash U, St Louis. So crazily enough, after helping to host Tiger Lily's Ohio Print Gathering, I will immediately move to STL. Yikes! But I will be very lucky to work alongside director Lisa Bulawsky and master printer Tom Reed, to print the works of Ann Hamilton, Radcliffe Bailey, James Siena and Nina Katchadourian. It's a wonderful program- one of the few professional printshops within a university that really involves the students as collaborators. If you'd like to know a bit more, watch this video.

I will be editioning like mad, and amazingly so- alongside former print grad classmate at OSU, John McCaughey- tiny world, eh? I'm sure we'll get to know each other very well. Can't wait!

Take care all, and thanks as always for following along!

SGC Milwaukee!!

Hello there! I have been traveling all over for all sorts of printmaking goodness since the last post. The first big story to cover is SGCI's Conference in Milwaukee- this is the largest print conference in the US- only the 3rd one I've been to so far (since Philly and DC- sorry to miss St Louis and New Orleans!) although I did quite enjoy the mid-sized MAPC in the fall. I was lucky to drive up with Andrea Knarr, print prof of Northern Kentucky U and her former student, Carola Bell, now at the Cincy Art Museum.

first thing is the registration table, as always- getting oriented after driving in late the night before

and after a rush job to the printer, I got propaganda out for Tiger Lily press and the Ohio print co-ops. Look- someone is reading it right now!

the vendor's fair- always a little crazy first thing

they even had a second room- here is Takach press

the first lecture I went to- Leslie Dill, Tom Sleigh, Paul Wong and Peter Kruty talk about their collaboration for the book, "If I had a Blueprint of History"

luckily I caught Peter Kruty's demo of how he printed the plates for Leslie

they were thick metal-backed photopolymer plates printed on a magnetic bed

we even got to look at an original Leslie Dill drawing! interesting how he had to translate her beautiful washes, charcoal marks and smudges through photo-based letterpress

and look- he even inked right on the bed!

next I saw Ed Bernstein's 'Painterly Print' demo with white soap ground

he creatively inks on a swiveling chair

the resulting print- very interesting textures

of course I had to peek at UMW's printshop- nice graining sink!

and organized chemicals

love the litho bowl racks!

later that night we had the Open Portfolio session. very different as it was at night on the first night and spread out on 3 different floors. in my past experience it's been during the day on a Saturday, all squished into a giant ballroom

I always love the work that comes from my alma mater, Kutztown University, PA. here is Andrea with some amazing prints!

Josh Dannin, also from KU, now at Ohio University and often writes for Printeresting

Kathryn Polk- from Memphis- really love her work!

here is my table- I have the last time slot till 10pm. sooo tired! but a lot of folks come up to talk to me about Tiger Lily and print co-ops, so that was wonderful. and yes, some good feedback on the work.

me at my table- thanks to Evan Summer!

Finally, we are on to day two- Friday! Admittedly I was a bit of an old lady and went to bed at a decent hour the first night. Now for another day full of lectures and demos.

here Dwight Pogue's cohort Skip Klepacki and Kate Conlon demo Century Plate lithography

then I skip over to watch the Crown Point Press demo- they tightly register a 5-color softground plate by Robert Bechtle

here they point at and explain the jig system

and another view of the print- I will be scratching my head, trying to figure out how to do this myself!

and now my friend Lauren Bennett, the print tech at Smith College, demos Dwight's Velvetint technique

the publisher's fair also went on in the same building- here is Cannonball press

 Women's Studio Workshop- and there were many others! Carrier Pigeon was also a favorite, but alas, no pictures

here Evan gives the bus driver the what-for after a bit of a shuttle scandal

eventually we make it to the opening for SAGA (Society of American Graphic Artists)

finally- enjoying some microbrews!

next, after an interesting lift from an independent curator, we get to go to the Milwaukee Art Museum- here I reunite with former OSU classmate, Charlie Thompson- now at U of Missouri/ Mizzou

we get a special viewing of William Kentridge's "The Nose" prints

I also get to catch up with Ericka Walker, now teaching in Nova Scotia. here she talks to Marin Vinaver, Moku Hanga printer from Mexico

Evan talks to the other one, along with Kentridge's printer

both of Kentridge's printers, Jillian Ross and Mlungisi Kongis- from the David Krut Workshop in Johannesburg- talk about their work with him

meanwhile the patrons are having some crazy dance party with pillbox hats in the middle of the museum

so we get some air outside

yes- the museum has wings!

time for the bar- I catch up with Charlie and meet some other Mizzou students

finally time for dinner at 1am at a street vendor

so goodnight Milwaukee- I leave you with bratwurst vision- what a great conference!