Printmaking Residency @ The Penland School of Arts and Crafts

From January 1 -15th I celebrated the turning of the new year as an artist in residence at the Penland School of Arts and Crafts in Penland, North Carolina.   There, I joined seven other artists in residence for two weeks of experimentation in the world of printmaking and letterpress.  I and my printmaking cohort, three other artists from San Francisco, Ashville, and Carboro, NC, were each coming to the discipline as newbies.  We learned from master printer Erika Adams the ins and outs of monoprint and lithography, catering the media to our own project needs.

And it was lithography that took me by storm.   I loved the velvety medium, and the rhythm and physicality of the production experience.   I worked with the invasive plant Oriental Bittersweet as my muse, creating drawings, digital imagery, and embossings featuring its twisting form.   And the most beautiful of the discoveries while at the residency? Drawing!   I rediscovered hand drawing, a medium that had fallen by the wayside in the last few years.  Putting my computer aside, I let the celebration of the medium, the movement of my hand and arm, and the sensuousness of the material take over.  Drawing with ink, litho crayon, pencil, india ink, and floor wax, I experimented with line, form and texture, mixing Oriental Bittersweet with drawings inspired by diagrams from late 1960s urban planning documents.  And the result?  A new design direction and production strategy that I am excited to develop further.