Today was my third day of teaching in the adult summer classes at Interlochen, and the first day of my monoprinting class. It's the second or third time I've taught this class here, and as usual it doesn't take long for the beauty and simplicity of monoprinting to take hold of the participants and lead to some very fine results.
We started the day with a talk about the history of monoprint, illustrated by projecting images from my laptop. Then we got into contact monoprints, which this class liked so much that it took us up to 2 pm until we changed techniques.
For the rest of the session, I helped the students make prints by painting with the inks using brushes on the monoprint plates, with thick and thin ink, then taking prints from the plate with dry paper and damp paper, using hand pressure and using the printing press. Everyone got at least one fine looking print out of the day:
It's hard work, printmaking. Not like working in a factory, of course, but still, you spend a lot of time on your feet, you're using your arms and shoulders to roll a printing press, so that everyone is pretty tired by about 4.30 pm. Come to think of it, yes, it's EXACTLY like working in a quarry or a coal mine, and damn anyone who says otherwise.
And when you clock off at the end of a shift, you get a lovely frame-able print out of it.
We started the day with a talk about the history of monoprint, illustrated by projecting images from my laptop. Then we got into contact monoprints, which this class liked so much that it took us up to 2 pm until we changed techniques.
For the rest of the session, I helped the students make prints by painting with the inks using brushes on the monoprint plates, with thick and thin ink, then taking prints from the plate with dry paper and damp paper, using hand pressure and using the printing press. Everyone got at least one fine looking print out of the day:
It's hard work, printmaking. Not like working in a factory, of course, but still, you spend a lot of time on your feet, you're using your arms and shoulders to roll a printing press, so that everyone is pretty tired by about 4.30 pm. Come to think of it, yes, it's EXACTLY like working in a quarry or a coal mine, and damn anyone who says otherwise.
And when you clock off at the end of a shift, you get a lovely frame-able print out of it.