Amy Nack, right printing relief plates.

As my first contribution to this wonderful community, I am grateful to be included among the contributors. While I was inactive for the first session, I plan to make regular contributions to the second session.  This post is being written from Boise, Idaho where I live and teach printmaking at Boise State University.  Boise has a growing community of printmakers, actively engaging with the region.  Amy Nack is my former student and a recently completed her B.F.A. with her emphasis in printmaking.  This fall she worked with the Boise City Department of Art and Art History, funded by a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. The grant enabled Amy to engage Idaho’s large refugee population in making prints.

In September, refugees from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burundi, Columbia, Congo, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Russia, Somalia, Thailand and Tanzania participated in three workshops offered by Amy.  Held at the Office for Refugees/ Mountain States Group, participants created relief prints on Styrofoam plates that were printed on Amy’s tabletop press.  I had the opportunity to assist Amy briefly for one of the workshops and was charmed by the excitement and engagement the refugees brought to the experience.

In particular, a young boy from Congo comes to mind.  He was initially timid toward drawing on the plate, but once we inked and printed it, his eyes had an extra sparkle and his smile lit up the whole neighborhood.  Many of the refugees are learning to speak English and the process Amy presented to them opened a new door for them to communicate their stories. A new community was built and hundreds of prints were created. The refugees were given one of their prints, agreeing to give another of their prints to the public during the WorldFest celebration held in downtown Boise on October 4, 2008.

Amy is living proof that teaching is truly a reciprocal activity. I am grateful to Amy for her natural inclination to serve others and her artistic perseverance, which consistently yields meaningful, rich work. Thank you Amy! Coming soon: Amy has another very exciting print related endeavor on the horizon.

Jill Fitterer, October 2008

Editions|Artists' Book Fair 08

October 31 - November 2, 2008

Location: The Tunnel, Chelsea, New York City,  269 11th Ave. between 27th and 28th Streets

Hours: Friday and Saturday 11am - 7pm, Sunday 11am - 4pm

FREE Admission!

Opening Night Benefit Gala Thursday, October 30, 5pm - 8pm:  A benefit for PS1 Contemporary Art Center

Fine art print and artist book printers and publishers from all over the world come to NYC for Print Week to show their latest editions.  It is an event printmakers should not miss.

More info can be found at www.eabfair.com

 Ties Don't Bind. monoprint, 2008.

Most of the world sees materials as the means to an end.  

Materials + tools=end-product. 

But in the minds, bodies, eyes and hands of many artists, materials are crucial participants in the conversations that result in the finished object-- which, on a good day, still whispers and echoes the conversations that happened along the way.   

For Honolulu-based artist Barbara Okamoto: "Rocks and sticks whisper to me of the past and what they have seen and where they have been.  And when rocks tell me that they can fly and float, then, I know that all things are possible."   

While Okamoto’s MFA (University of Hawaii – Manoa, 1979) focus was fiber art, she is currently working primarily in mixed media printmaking and painting techniques.  Fiber sensibilities remain evident in her imagery along with influences from Hawai‘i and travels to Japan, Europe, Guatemala, and the Mainland U.S. Okamoto, affectionately known as “Bobbie” to friends, creates dynamic collograph/monotypes, combining dreamlike scenarios with an intriguing combination of textures grounded in real world experience and high contrast colors.  Bobbie’s use of negative space creates a fluid sense of movement and a surreal sense of floating through her designs. 

Okamoto builds up the textured organic surface of her rock-shaped plates with various acrylic media on mat board.   These rock forms are then inked (usually in a very dark color) and wiped like an intaglio plate.  A thin piece of sisal rope is then inked separately with a bright, hith-contrast color. This rope is carefully wrapped around the rock form before printing.  As you can imagine, this final arrangement is not easy to do without mixing ink or smudging these very different inks into each other, but the resulting images are worth the extra time and care.  Bobbie also touches up and heightens the dimensionality of her images using colored pencils.

Rock After Dark. colored pencil, 2008.

I have begun yet another folio call As You Wish and it is due soon. I am very happy to have this one be small and fast. It began with beginning to try out the Inkteraction site. I felt it would be nice to do a quick exchange to have people get to know each other. The folio has grown into ten sets with 11 artists in each set I am #12 with sets 13,14, 15 going to Special Collections here at the University of Colorado, an International Special Collection and one exhibition set. The response has been great! I will submit images when print begin to arrive! And when I can figure out how to put images on here. Tried 2 to day and not luck. Feeling a bit challenged:)  melanie.yazzie@colorado.edu  (Oct, 21, 2008)

Last November while waiting at an airport in Delhi, India I came to the conclusion that I was not a very good tourist. I’m more interested in watching people than interacting with them on a public level. However, I met amazing people on my adventures primarily because I always seem to be traveling alone. I’m certainly happiest when I am up to my elbows in ink; when I’m busy thinking about how to best express an idea in print than how to get from the airport to the guesthouse.

That said I seem to travel all the time and this past year-long sabbatical has enabled me to explore far reaching corners of the world from a former Soviet state, to a charming Belgium village, to the fascinating frenetic city of Kolkata India. (Many of you I saw along the way) Having worked in print shops as far south as Cape Town, South Africa (Hard Ground Printmakers) to as far north Aberdeen Scotland (Peacock Printmakers) my tenure as a printmaker has meant adapting to varied situations, working in exciting places and meeting fantastic people.

I thought it would be interesting to start a segment for this blog called “UnPack and Print” in hopes that we can share, places, antidotes, advice, and opportunities because I’m always up for a place where I can unpack my suitcase and get some ink under my nails.

Starting with my most resent residency experience and working backwards in installments here is the unofficial scoop.

Frans Masereel Graphics Center, Kasterlee, Belgium
April 20, 2008

Three weeks goes by quickly therefore if you have a residency come prepared. The Frans Masereel Centrum de Graphica is a Flemish state run organization and like the precision of the train system this place operates by the clock. In fact the electricity is on a timer and cuts off at 8:00 PM on the dot. The studios open at 8:00 AM, so if you are a late night worker this is not the residency for you. They provide facilities for screen, litho, intaglio and relief. The presses aren’t large but adequate (the web site provides the details in metric) The studios are all domes. Each artist’s accommodations are A-frames. (One of the other artists, a New Yorker, christened the 10 buildings the Smirf Village, incidentally, Smirfs are Belgian.)

I chose to work in screen because of access to a one-arm vacuum-printing table and due to the fact that I could come with printouts ready to expose and be printing by the 2nd or third day.  They provided screens and inks. I purchased paper there but with the dollar in the dumps if you can bring your own do so.

Each artist gets his own A-Frame with living area, TV, drafting table, dinning area, kitchen and two bedrooms up stairs (so you can bring your children). The kitchen has all the appliances, 4 cups, 6 plates, 6 forks, etc. You will just need to provide all your groceries, spices, etc. (sometimes stables get passed down from previous residence)

People come and go all the time so there are staggered overlaps and the staff relies on this to help orient the “newbees”. In fact when I arrived a colleague from graduate school that I had not seen in many years was in the etching studio wiping an etching plate. (A shout out to Susan Campbell “Great to see you girl”.

I was hoping to meet lots of international artists, but almost everyone there during my stay was American. However there was this great Belgian art couple called “Cake House” and a fellow from Zimbabwe. They have housing for 10 artists but not all were occupies. There is a friendly staff although at times they seem over worked and you need to make sure you catch them when you see them for items you might need. They are government workers and leave at 4:00.  The more self-sufficient you are the more work you will accomplish.

The three weeks is not exactly 21 days since you can only check in on a week day between 9-12 and 1:00-4:00 and you usually must check out on a Friday. Sometimes they can extend it if your cabin is not needed right away.  You must leave your cabin clean or they will charge you to clean it!

Each artist is also given a bike with saddlebags and lock. The town is charming but rather uninteresting, Antwerp is a 45 min train ride, very inexpensive if you do a day return on the weekend. And public transport is easy but not well explained on the web site.

The studios are closed on Sundays but you can work in you’re  A-frame, or take the train to Antwerp (a very groovy city) or explore the countryside on your bike. The break is really necessary especially if you have been really working hard. I was able to create about 68 prints in the time I was there. The Center takes a percentage of the work but they only took 4 works of mine so I felt it was more than an adequate exchange. There was also a 130-euro fee for housing etc. but that seemed minor in exchange for everything they offer.

Next installment CHHAP, Baroda India

Then to follow:

Anchor Graphics, Chicago, IL

Hardground Printmakers, Cape Town, South Africa

Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen, Scotland