Fox Drop by Kristy Lynn

Cosmic Honey, Books Series, Kristy Lynn

Last week was Kristy Lynn’s final week with us.  She decided to add a little printmaking to the mix and finished two editions in silkscreen. Her prints turned out great (you can see them at the studio in our Curio Shop). We were really impressed the the number of pieces she completed while at the studio. While I was going through the updates she made to her website I noticed the image above, a page from her notebook, which made me feel so happy about the our home and studio.

Woodcut by Genna Kusch and Tamara Sponder

Woodcut by Genna Kusch and Tamara Sponder

Genna and Tamara, both friends from Queen’s, came down to work on a number of projects for the week. They had started a woodcut at the studio two years ago and finally completed it, they also began an installation project which I am curating with them and finally Tamara worked on a series of etching for her Littlest Print Exchange submission.

Workshop with Trenton High School

Workshop with Trenton High School

Near the end of the week we hosted the second half of the Trenton High School Etching Workshop. During this half the students came to the studio to print their etched copper plates. We taught them about the etching process, the inking process and how to use the intaglio press. They each had the chance to work with two different colours and chine-colle. All the students left with at least 6 – 8 prints. We were contacted afterwards by the teacher with a biggest thank you email and an invitation to be the keynote speakers at the school Art Awards (so nice).

To top it all off we got some time in on my nieces new trampoline when Kyle and I (plus two of the residents) went to her third birthday party.

Links for this week:

- I am hoping to get as good as these kids on the trampoline.

- I want to write a convincing letter to Printeresting so we can get a free can of their Gamblin Ink.

- This post made me pretty excited about planting a garden this year.

- I really love the paintings of Jules De Balincourt!

What a great week!

-Chrissy

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We are always using  books as reference here at the studio. They are great resources for workshops, inspiration and trouble-shooting. Here are three of our favourite printmaking books.

The Printmaking Bible

This book lives up to its title covering intaglio, screen print, relief print, monoprint and chine-colle. It is packed full of step-by-step guides, 1,000′s of full colour images and tool/material lists. Sadly, it focuses on traditional (toxic) materials, most of which we don’t use in our studio. We still use this book during workshops to give students a quick guide to what they will be learning. What I love most about this book is the example images. They use contemporary artists to illustrate the processes and all of the images are in full colour.

Print Liberation

This is a really fun book about screen printing. It covers both DIY printing and commercial printing. There is a fun little history section that I love using in workshops. They also included pre-made stencils which not only work as great examples but can be used by someone trying screen print for the first time.

Print Workshop

This is a more recent addition to our resource library. Like the Printmaking Bible this book is packed full of different techniques ranging from relief printing to solar fabric printing, however, unlike the Printmaking Bible this book is all about DIY culture. This book simplifies the processes, highlights the beauty of imperfections found in handmade prints and creates a fun, DIY atmosphere around each process. This approach makes this the ideal book for kids workshops and workshops we don’t host in our studio.

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Last week I went on the road to New Orleans for the South Graphics Conference. This was the first time attending this conference, actually this was the first conference Spark Box Studio has ever attended, needless to say I was pretty excited. Sadly, since we had residents booked in I had to make this trip alone, which meant a lot of long days and lonely travelling. Lucky for me tons of like-minded printers attend this event every year so the loneliness was short lived.

The trip began early Thursday with a 4 am drive to the Toronto airport. With just one minor hang-up with customs, I was quickly jet-setting to Louisiana. I arrived early afternoon, dropped my publisher booth stuff off and headed to my accommodations (which I found on Air BnB). The rest of Thursday was made up of searching for groceries and relaxing on the roof top of the loft I was staying in.

Friday was day one of the conference. Spark Box had a booth in the publishers fair so I left early to set-up my table. I took a walk through the beautiful, yet very smelly, French Quarter to the Sheraton Hotel where the conference was being held. I was the first publisher to arrive … which made me feel like a silly eager Canadian. But my eager attitude paid off leading me to meet so many nice people and share information to them about our studio and residency. Because of that minor customs hiccup I wasn’t allowed to sell any prints … but I did get to speak about them and the great printmakers who created them. I was set-up near the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program and got to met Chris Dunnett and Phil Sanders. I now hope that I will get some time to go to NYC and check out their space.

I left the publisher fair early that day to attend one of the demonstrations being held at Tulane University. The demonstration was being done by our university print professor Otis Tamasauskas. The drive to the demo was longer than I thought so I only caught the tail-end but made plans to go out with Otis later in the evening. We met up at the hotel and together with Gravity Press owner Brandon Graving we went to the evenings art walk. My camera died by this point so I didn’t get any pictures but the night was great. We stopped at the Community Print Shop, the exhibit at the Healing Center and Deborah Cornell and Barbara Putnam’s exhibit at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Saturday was another early morning walk to the hotel in order to re-set-up the publishers table (they moved us for day two). I decided the smell of the French Quarter at 7AM was a bit too much so instead I walked along the river. Day two of the publisher fair was held in conjunction with the portfolio sessions.  It was a great day. I split my time standing at the table and walking around looking at all the amazing and talented printed works. Splitting time between the table and other events was a challenge since I was by myself but next year Kyle will attend as well and we will have more time to go to the lectures and demos.

Past resident Josh Dannin came by the booth just as I was packing up and we headed to the Wolfbat Railroad event that he had been participated in over the week. The BFT Wolfbat Railroad was another printmaking project going on at the same time as the Southern Graphics Conference but not in conjunction with it. Wolfbat Studios (Dennis McNett) & Woodcut Funhouse (Sean Starwars) teamed up with Vans Custom Culture to host a three day customization event that was 100% free and open to the public. As the organizers explained it “The event included the construction of a wooden train consisting of 1 steam engine & 20 box cars. Artist, educators, and college students from across the U.S. tricked out their boxcar with screen prints, woodcut prints, flags, paper mache structures, and what ever else they can come up with. Each artist or team worked with at least 2 local high school and/or middle school kids.”

Saturday evening was the culmination of this three day event and was celebrated by taking the train on parade through the Marigny/Bywater area. After the parade there was a party with a great brass band and tons of dancing printmakers. It was a great time and a wonderful way to end the weekends events.

Sunday was my last day in New Orleans and I spent most of the day hanging out with Josh. We did a ton of tourist like things – walk through the French Quarter market, check out all the great street performers, eat beignets at Cafe du Monde and walk around Bourbon Street. After Josh headed back to Philadelphia I went to the botanical gardens with my accommodations host Andrea and then out to dinner.

It was a great trip and I am happy that we decided to participate in the events this year. We are definitely going next year in Milwaukee.

-Chrissy

For the past three years we have been given the opportunity to have the students of the Loyalist College Art and Design Foundations Program come to our studio to learn acrylic resist etching. As with prior years the workshop this February was a great success. There were over 30 people working in the studio but by having organized the space with inking station, drypoint stations, printing stations and drying stations each student had a chance to experiment and print a number of times.

With past workshops Kyle and I would prep all of the plates for the students, which meant cutting the copper, file the edges, degrease the copper and apply the hard ground resist. But since Kyle and I are teaching in the program this year we had the chance to show the class how to prep plates and coat them with the hard ground. Although this is not the most interesting part of the process it was great for us to share this step ( it is pretty crucial step to the etching process). There is always the fear with acrylic resist etching that degrease process was not done properly, potentially causing the hard ground not to adhere to the copper. Luckily each student did a great job applying their ground and not one plate was lost in the etching process.

The students had one week to draw their image onto their plates, after which they were brought to the studio where Kyle and I etched them and prepped them for printing. The workshop only ran for three hours and within that time 90 prints were made by the class.

*Above print done by Colleene Rowley

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It has been a productive week here at Spark Box. With three residents and Kyle and I using the studio there has been so much work being created. After having a couple months with no residents at all it feels so nice to have an energized studio space.

Kyle and I continued to work on different projects in the studio including etchings, silk screens and watercolour monoprints (one of my new favorite processes!). I finally got a new website put up for my personal work which can be found at chrissypoitras.com.

J.P. King has been making some awesome collage pieces, including some sculptural collages. These pieces inspired our upcoming Collage Party happening this coming Wednesday the 25th (find details by clicking HERE). Kirsten McCrea started working on some great paintings but has also been making these intricate patterned works, which I really want to see as wallpaper.

Sarah Burwash has been painting up a storm in the outside studio. It’s so fun sharing studio space with her and chatting about the stories behind each one of her paintings. We have also been listening to a lot of Radiolab … always filled with endless discoveries.

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Kyle was working his hands bloody on the etchings for our upcoming show, Opposing Forces, which got me thinking about why we are printmakers. It is such a laborious process filled with endless amounts of technical issues that I wonder why we are so attracted to it. But then I see work like Sean Caulfield’s and it all makes sense again.

Body Question #3, Mixed Media on Drafting Film

Sphere of Fire, Mezzotint

Sean is a Centennial Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, along with being a well establish printmaker. During my fourth year at Queen’s University Sean was one of the artists-in-residence. He lectured about this practice and allowed students to visit his studio to learn more about his process. Ever since then I have been a huge fan of his work. I enjoy all the elements and narratives existing in the unnatural environments and am in awe of his mezzotints. His intaglio pieces are a combination of collage and print collected together to create amazing imaginary spaces. On top of enjoying all of the small and subtle details that exist in Sean’s work I am also drawn to his limited colour palette. These is something about the few soft colours that make these works even more erie and mysterious.

Protecting Flames, Mezzotint, Intaglio, Chine Colle

Plan for a Sanctuary #2, Mixed Media

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As per usual I am trying to stay on top of the blog. I am realizing that I may not be as good at multitasking as I would like to have myself think. With the upcoming exhibition at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery I have been trying to go back and forth between the studio and Spark Box admin, which is proving to be difficult.

Anyway, onto the post about residency award winner Sarah Ammons, who was awarded time to work on a series of etchings a few years back. At the time Sarah was in the middle of her BFA at Queen’s University. We love encouraging artists in their undergrad to participate in the residency program as it is an ideal way to meet artists and build new connections.

We were quite excited about having Sarah work in etching since prior to her stay we hadn’t had many printmakers participate in the residency program. Sarah’s etchings were manly based on portraits and in her words were a “reflection on her outlook towards life”. During her stay she completed a number of medium sized works and had the opportunity to learn our non-toxic process.

In anticipation of starting up workshops again I have decided to reflect on our most recent workshop at the new studio with a group of high school students from Belleville. Over the past few years we’ve worked hard to build a good relationship with the different schools around the area. We see art as a truly beneficial experience for any young person. Art provides youth with a place to express themselves in an open and nurturing space and we love giving a young person a chance to participate in an environment where they can freely be who they want to be.

This past fall we had the pleasure of hosting a two day etching workshop with a group of art students from Moira Secondary. Their teacher Rosanne Duke (a big supporter of the studio) she asked if her class could learn intaglio printmaking with us through the process of etching. We have done this workshop with Loyalist in the past and it has been a huge success so we jumped on the chance to share this very old process with her students.

This was the first big workshop we have held in our new space, making it a bit nerve-racking. With over 20 students we weren’t too sure how the space would hold-up, but to our surprise it turned out very well. We first went to their classroom to give each student their pre-grounded plates and the step-by-step instruction on how to carve their image. Then the entire class came to Picton to print their plates on our press. Each student had the chance to make an edition of four prints in two different colours. During the first half of the studio day students were timidly working with the inks and using the press but by the second half they were experimenting with different application processes and producing some really inspiring pieces.

If you are interested in learning about etching be sure to sign-up for our January Etching Workshop >> find out more here <<

This introductory course requires no previous experience with printmaking. Students will begin the lesson with fresh copper plates and learn how to transform them into a small edition of prints. This workshop will teach students a non-toxic form of etching and will include hard ground techniques, aquatinting and soft ground techniques. By the end of the course students will have an understanding of the basic principles of printmaking including the above etching processes along with working with printing inks and using a traditional etching press.

This time last year we had  printmaker Tessa Androutsopoulos staying with us. Tessa traveled to us from Finland. She studied printmaking at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland and in her application she sent images of her degree show entitled “World Destroyer”. This exhibition explored imaginary of cityscapes through wall painting and traditional printmaking. This was one of the most vibrant applications we had received and I was very excited to see what she would create while at Spark Box.

The work she completed while at the studio lived up to our expectations. Tessa was with us for two months and during that time she made a screen print series inspired by the circus, as well as a number of large and small linoblock prints. She had made so much during her stay and had met so many people we thought it would be fun to host an exhibition of her work. The exhibition was great and the party was so much fun. Tessa’s work filled the front room of the old studio and people young and old enjoyed her humorous images and lighthearted display.