Relief Prints

Trista Escobedo

Shawn McPheron

Kimberly Fawbush

Khara Cornelius

Fran Dietl

Chris Little

Beth Dougherty

We viewed and discussed final relief prints today, with a selection of those prints reproduced above. Each will have an edition of at least 4, some may have more. Many of the prints explored multiple processes, and given the variety of approaches taken I think that a pretty broad range of educational and creative experiences were shared by many. Chris and Khara both were using maps as a printing base, with Chris printing on actual map sections and Khara on digital maps. Several explored chine colle, and Shawn, Beth, and Kimberly had some pretty successful results. Fran took advantage of translucent paper mounted over another and different color paper for her strong graphic image, while Trista printed her image over a dog foot print decorative paper that created an image of multiple complexities of meaning.

Relief prints, like all of the print processes prior to the digital, has a long history and tradition. However, during the last quarter of the 20th century printmaking went through a lot of changes, perhaps due to large contract print shops working with artists who didn't know how to create prints. Prints began to incorporate other media, they no longer were just flat images created with ink, paper, and pressure. They incorporated photographic processes, sculptural considerations, even elements of installation and video. The work created in those printshops was orchestrated by Master Printers, artists who knew how to create prints based on extensive experience and knowledge of the processes, and who worked with the artists who didn't know how to create a "print". Much of printmaking is about is about critical thinking, having an idea and exploring that idea through a process or processes, resolving creative problems, saying something new and visually engaging about the potentials of both the idea and the process. That takes skill, creativity, knowledge of what came before, and the ability to think critically.

After the relief prints are editioned, wonder what would happen if.......