Attended a reunion at Moore College of Art and Design yesterday and took a Relief Printing workshop with Katie VanVliet, founder of BYO Print. Pretty crowded with 16 students in a space with three presses but Katie and her assistants did a wonderful job. They had a number of relief objects to work with—various dimensional textures, old advertising letterpress blocks, letter stamps, etc. We could use any of the presses or print by hand with Japanese Barens. I experimented with both.

The first is a study done on the press above. I taped small bits of wood together and inked them with mixed colors. As the presses were in demand, I did my second design by hand starting with a letterpress block showing a print workshop. Other letterpress blocks, bubble wrap textures, and letter stamps added to the happy chaos I felt in the workshop. I like the contrast between the first more orderly and the second more energetic designs.

Tomorrow is the last day of my painting class. I have signed up for the second session as I think the studying by copying existing work is helping me a great deal. I really don’t want to be doing that and having someone expect it of me and be there to crit my progress is important. I’m looking forward to warmer weather and going outside on my own… we’ll see.

The painting and the printmaking complement each other—my painting currently is more representive and the printmaking more abstract.