What's Happening in Our Studios: Cosima Storz in Screenprinting

Also on Wednesday in screenprinting, Cosima was preparing for a class. Pyramid Atlantic is partnering with Montgomery County Housing to teach art to young people. The kids are doing bookmaking, relief printmaking, and, this week, screenprinting. Cosima teaches first and second graders. Today, she is preparing water-based acrylic ink and checking that the screens are ready. 

What's Happening in Our Studios: Allan Akman in Screenprinting

On Wednesday, Allan was working on a multi-layer screenprint based on a countryside photo he took in Virginia. It will be a seventeen-color print, and he's working on layer number twelve or so today. In the photo that shows the two prints, the darker one is a mistake: the ink went on too dark. When doing seventeen layers, the registration is important for getting the location of the ink right. Allan is using acrylic-based ink, not ketchup or coffee, though the latter is possible. It's been four and half years since he learned screenprinting here at Pyramid Atlantic, took to it, and stuck with it; and he has some amazing photos of pieces in his portfolio.

An Ode To Experience

Come March 4th 2014, from 12-2pm, Pyramid Atlantic studio interns, Janet Ibrahim and Lew Is Ckool, will demonstrate screenprinting, book making, and paper folding techniques at the Plaza artist materials & picture framing store (http://www.plazaart.com/), across the street from our beloved art center.
After having installed An Ode To [Their] Experience as studio interns, in the Plaza window, Janet and Lew have proven themselves fully capable of transforming the flat page into a 3-dimensional form.
Be sure to come out, show your support, and learn from these emerging masters.

Meet Our New Visting Artistic Staff Member: Emma Ringness

I recently had the opportunity to pose some questions to Pyramid Atlantic's new visiting Artistic Staff member, Emma Ringness for this blog. Here is the interview that took place via email.

Peter: In your past work, you've done photogravure, screenprint, planography, screenprint and thread, embroidery, hand dying, linoleum cuts, charcoal, polymer plate printing, and drypoint etching for starters. I believe I saw all that on your Hambone Press tumblr blog. What media do you anticipate using in the future? Do you have favorites or bests?

Emma: I choose my medium based on what will express my concept the best.  I don’t like to pick favorites, but I have a special place in my heart for etching and letterpress, both of which I plan on working on at Pyramid.  I am also excited to learn and play with toys I have never used before, like the foil stamper! 

Peter: Online, you share that you have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Arizona State University, and in recent years you've been a studio technician and gallery attendant at said university. Do you anticipate returning to art school for an advanced degree? If so, what would you study knowing what you know now?

Emma: I would definitely like to return to academia to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree, either in printmaking or with an emphasis in printmaking…but not until I am good and ready!

Peter: I understand your first solo exhibition was this winter. What is your favorite part and least favorite part about exhibiting? Was it a good experience? What did you learn?

Emma: The place I exhibited—Eye Lounge—is an old house turned gallery in Downtown Phoenix, divided into three exhibition spaces.  The area I was in is really small and has a lot of character, unlike your typical white box gallery.  The space gave my installation a whole new feel.  That is my favorite thing about exhibiting: reinterpreting my work in a new environment. Seeing the same work in different spaces teaches me so much about the work itself.

Peter: It sounds like your first solo exhibit explored what could be a form of invisibility: everyday occurrences or events that go unnoticed, but which mark a kind of progression or growth. Do you think you'll expand on this theme in your future work? Or how might your direction change?

Emma: Invisibility, yes, but also the preservation and celebration of these markers or events.  That theme will be recurring in my work for a while, whether or not it will be the main focus. 

Peter: What ideas or themes do you most want to do art about?

Emma: There are a lot of themes I would like to make art about and they are constantly evolving.  I have begun to work on some text-based pieces about my inner monologue and how that differs from what I actually express or present.  I heard the printmaker Jenny Schmid on a panel lecture a few years ago, and she said something along the lines of “the more specific your story is, the more universal it becomes.”  Her words really struck me.  I believe that the more personal and honest your artwork is, the more it resonates with other people.  That is something I constantly strive for.

Peter: As a visiting artist at Pyramid Atlantic, what do you want to be your main focus?

Emma: There are a few pieces and series that I never explored to my satisfaction while I was an undergrad.  I would like to take those off the back burner and give them the attention they deserve.

Peter: How did you find out about Pyramid Atlantic?

Emma: I am honestly not sure when I first heard about Pyramid—it was definitely a while ago!  Before I came I knew a few of the printmaking associates and heard great things about Pyramid from a grad student at Arizona State University who had been an intern here.

Peter: Does teaching interest you? If so, what would you teach?

Emma: Well right now I am teaching little kids—kindergarten through second grade—as part of the partnership between Pyramid Atlantic and the Montgomery Housing Project.  I also look forward to teaching some classes at Pyramid in the future—perhaps a collagraph class.

Peter: Have you found a particular way that you like to work? Describe.

Emma: I am not sure that there is a method to my madness!  I like to work when the studio is quiet—so early morning or late evening—and with some good music or a good podcast going.

What's Happening in Our Studios: Lynette Spencer and Franc Rosario in Letterpress

On Wednesday, Lynette and Franc worked out a trade of letterpress help for Photoshop digital media assistance. Franc's project is a print from a linoleum cut that is better suited to a large Vandercook press than to one of the print shop presses.

The subject of the work is a woman Franc photographed who visits his aunt's bakery in El Salvador.  

What's Happening in Our Studios: Janet Ibrahim in the Print Shop

This past Friday, Janet worked on printing a spray paint aquatint etching (with ghost prints for variation in the result), practicing a technique she learned yesterday. The artwork design consisted of an unplanned doodle to go on paper she made at Pyramid Atlantic.

What's Happening in Our Studios: Lew Ckool in the Bindery

Lew's idea is to create a pamphlet book to serve as an alternate to a business card. On Friday, he was experimenting with the type and packaging. About ten are planned that would contain original poetry and what Lew describes as "the beginning of a mythology."

What's Happening in Our Studios: Jane Lueders in the Print Shop

Jane is only doing white on January 31, that is, building a background. It's for a series she's thought about for a couple months that involves using different printmaking techniques. After this beginning phase, she'll move on to screenprinting, but today she runs the largest press: the French tool. Pyramid Atlantic's various studios are great for combining mediums when it comes time to move from one to the next.