Color into Print

It took me three extra-urban buses to get from Siena to Castel del Piano, a small town west of Grosseto, which was where I was picked up by the organizer of the class I came all the way to Italy to take. One of the great things about Italy is its web of public transportation. You just have to plan ahead and be patient and you can get yourself just about anywhere. Of course, if you have questions some drivers are more helpful than others. But anyway, it was a weary day of traveling that turned into a marvelous beginning of the class.

The main reasons I signed up to take this class through Women's Studio Workshop where the location in Italy and the timing in July. I also asked around about the teacher and checked out her work. But that was it. From those humble pretenses, I got much more than I expected. Color into Print was an AMAZING experience. The very first day I knew it was going to be great after chatting with Shelley, the instructor. I could tell right away she is super down to earth and completely invested in her students as artists and complicated people. After traveling on my own and having minimal interactions with people it was a shock to find myself in a meaningful conversation with someone I had just met. But it was also great.

The age range of the six students was 50 years and everyone had led a really remarkable life. I got to know the group over the 10 day class and it made the experience extra fun to scheme with them about trying to decipher information about the staff at the agriturismo where we stayed. I was the only one who could speak Italian so I acted as liason/diplomat between the two groups. Did I mention it was fun?

The first morning of the class was full of demos. Since they had converted a dining room and living room space into a print studio we were working with low-tech methods, but I learned a great deal. There's a lot you can do with not a lot. The days were set up to have work/demo time in the morning til 1:30. Then lunch. Then a break til 4 at which point work time started up again until 7. And then dinner was always (mostly) promptly at 8 and lasted at least two hours with four very generous courses.

During the break sometimes we went to the pool, sometimes napped, and sometimes we walked in the heat of the day for hours to and from Seggiano, the closest town. The art-making was at times frenzied and intense and at other times relaxing. I worked best when I was printing in the morning and making plates in the afternoon. I had been gathering inspiration in the first week of traveling in Italy from magazine images to images drawn in my sketchbook. So I just dove right in and made things like crazy.

New* things I learned:
Chine colle method that actually makes sense
Shaped drypoint plates with plexiglass
Using foam shapes to create the illusion of screen printing
Collograph with chipboard, metal filings, and spackle
Watercolor monoprint
Viscosity monoprint
A la poupee inking technique
Lots about mixing color

*a few things I saw done in college but had never tried them myself

I paired some tried and true methods like acetate stencils and transparent flats with the aforementioned new techniques and just kept making and printing then making more and printing more. It was the first time for me to play with printmaking in over two years. I jumpstarted my stagnated studio practice and hope to keep up the momentum back in the States.