A Printmaker's Journey

This year I have started taking printmaking classes and have managed to fall in love with the art. The process is that which they use to make newspapers, with a plate and a press. We covered five different process last semester, which created an exceedingly busy semester, but a very good turnout. Look for new prints from this semester's endeavor's as well.

The first project is called a monotype, and it printed off a plexiglass plate using multiple runs through the press for all of the colors. These two are postcards that I made using this process, each has a quote on the back that I've placed below the pictures.

I pick the prettiest part of the sky and I melt into the wing and then and then into the air; 'till I'm just soul on a sunbeam. -Richard Bach

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. -Leonardo Da Vinci

The next set of prints are collagraphs, which is similar to collage on a plate, and then running it through the press. Both prints had separate plates that were made, and they work as a pair and as part of an ongoing project with paper cranes that started Summer of 2009.

The next five prints are intaglio dry point prints, where copper is scratched into to create the black areas in the prints. The copper is then scraped and burnished to get rid of what was there to create a new image, which is why a "history" of the plate can be seen in later images. The project was "change" and inspired by my mom's collection of butterflies I decided to show their metamorphosis.

This final image uses the process of Chine-collé where another piece of paper is glued to the base piece of paper while running the plate and both papers through the press. The paper can have drawings or color to add to the print.

This next print is a myth that I created as part of the assignment requirements. The process is a linoleum cut, where a soft linoleum plate is gouged into created what becomes the white space in the print. The most difficult part of this project is having to work backwards in reverse. Instead of the marks being made creating darkness, they create light. And everything gouged will print reversed. The imagery is traditional Chinese images and the characters are Chinese as well. This was inspired by someone very near and dear to me who has studied extensively in Chinese for the last year and a half. He translated the characters from what I wanted, and I created the print from the inspiration he gave me.

"From the beginning of time until the end this is true, I love you"

The last print is a lithograph, using multiple mylar plates. The image is of my parents that was cut into four colors and printed from a computer onto four plates, then inked and separately ran through the press. The background is a hand-drawn tree that was created on another plate by scanning in the drawing and printing it onto the plate in the same fashion.

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do.

-Emily Cordula