Hell yeah it is!  This ain't no rant - this is raw passion, baby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpAuDrs5ocg

No matter where your politics lie, we all witnessed an incredible historical moment.   Although the state I live in is still a red one, it now has a stronger tinge of blue.  For once in a very long time, I now have hope for the future of this nation.  I pray that Obama can withstand the ton of criticism and scrutiny  coming his way as he tries to de-tangle the mess that has been 8 years in the making. He said it himself, the journey will be long and our climb will be steep.  But let's not focus on the work that will be upon him all too soon.  For now, Obama has inspired a nation and has given the United States some credibility with the planet!  Since his announcement to run for the presidency to his being the President Elect, no one captures the moment like an artist can.  There is a ton of Obama art out there.  Most of it in posters that have been screen printed or stenciled.

I'm lucky to be alive to witness this moment in our history's time..........

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.