This fall the Combined Print Media class has been hard at work in the print studio. This class encourages integrating print methods in a way that allows for a deeper understanding of the materials, while making inquiries into subjects and ideas. The students have been doing a great job of combining conceptual development with the exploration of technique.
The second project of the semester was an investigation of place. Whether that was reflected in a more traditional landscape or a more conceptual idea of place, or something in between, was up to the student.
Ruby Kapka gave us two ways of looking at a section of her personal landscape, her kitchen and the objects contained within it. Her print is reminiscent of a kind of quasi-cultural anthropological exploration of personality, place, and taxonomy.
R. Kapka Kitchen: Dirty / Some Things From My Kitchen: Clean
Photopolymer intaglio, photopolymer relief, hand painting, handset type
Buzzy Sullivan explored an abstract landscape, which layered a haphazard background composed of elements from a magazine solvent transfer, with acrylic dry point and relief elements. This print pulls together elements of the random (solvent transfer) with the controlled (intaglio and relief printing).
B. Sullivan Untitled
Magazine solvent transfer, digital printing, acrylic dry point intaglio, handset wood type
Ruth Bryant's piece exposes an often overlooked or hidden away part of our personal landscape, the cat's eye view of the dust bunnies beneath the furniture. The rainbow roll using Akua water based inks really emphasizes the feeling of space, but plays with our expectations of light and shadow.
R. Bryant Untitled
Monotype rainbow roll, collograph, acrylic dry point intaglio
Brittany Chavez explored the both the physical and personal landscape of a specific street view in downtown Portland. She used very gestural brayer marks to suggest architecture and negative space, along with drawing and blind embossing to pull the elements together.
B. Chavez The Sunniest Morning
Monoprinting, graphite, linocut
Sienna Swan's landscape refers to memory associated with place. The highly graphic line work swirls around the figure to create an almost dreamscape atmosphere.
S. Swan Untitled
Collograph using hand cut papercut, linocut
Rather than creating a human-centric landscape, Erin Derge's print interprets the way whales perceive place. With just a few graphic devices, Erin's piece refers to both objective data collection, and to the personalization of mammals, place, and narrative.
E. Derge Untitled
Relief photopolymer and monoprinting
Michelle Latham created a landscape which lives somewhere in between representation and personal interpretation. Her subject is a specific intersection on the way up the hill to OCAC. She integrated relief methods and intaglio in a way that really captures this degraded, erosion-prone area of Portland's west hills.
M. Latham Burnside and Tichner
Linocut, acrylic dry point intaglio, monoprinting
Atika Piff created an exploration of place based on photographs and memories from her sister's apartment in China. She created a landscape out of separate pieces, broken and re-placed together to represent a landscape fractured by poor urban planning, excess, and neglect.
A. Piff Haphazardly Condensed
Monotype, photopolymer intaglio, handset type
