hellochicago!: In the Background :: print night part one

Last year eleven artists were invited by talented artist/printmaker Yoonmi Nam to participate in a themed portfolio project for the 2012 SGCI Conference in New Orleans. I was lucky enough to be one of them! With the deadline fast approaching, I have been working non-stop this past week drawing, carving, inking, and printing.

Below is a description of the project as well as images of the conception of my design and the printing of the first layer. I literally turned my apartment into a printmaking studio- hanging prints with clothespins all over the living room and our front hallway! It was a challenge!! but so worth it!!

Enjoy and visit again soon to see the finished three-color print!

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In The Background

Themed Portfolio for 2012 SGCI Conference in New Orleans, LA

Portfolio Information

Paper size: 20” x 27” (vertical or horizontal)

*Must be bleed prints with razor cut edges & it is NOT necessary to include interleaving sheets or glassine when mailing prints (glassine will be part of the book-binding element to protect the prints)

Edition Size: 14 Can be any print medium, printed on any 2-dimensional surface The design of the image will have potential for continuous patterning

In The Background exchange portfolio will be a tribute to our decorative and commercial printmaking history. The styles, patterns and the subject matters depicted in each print reveal how we locate ourselves geographically, socially, culturally, and historically: where we live, where we came from, and where we want to go.

Often in the background, the use of wallpaper throughout history has been of an ephemeral nature. Whether it was used to transport ourselves to a picturesque French landscape in our own living rooms or to cover and conceal what lies underneath, wallpaper has the ability to create a mood and atmosphere. As styles changed over time, so did the coverings on our walls.

Artists will make their own wallpaper designs based on their diverse interests and backgrounds while addressing the culture of this man-made environment and the potential transformation of an interior space. Using both conventional and unconventional subject matters, each print will be a sample wallpaper section with the potential to expand to become a continuous pattern. The completed portfolio could resemble a high-end wallpaper sample book providing a sense of potential to be used as wallpapers, and at the same time, each print will be able to stand alone as an image.

My Plan: a three color reduction MDF woodcut of a repeated tuning fork pattern -reminiscent of my 2009-2010 printed wall installations.