press play print

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