Day of the Dead: Steamroller printing at the Plains Art Museum

This last weekend, October 3rd and 4th marked the sixth annual Studio Crawl brought about by the Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists group. Special guests this time around included Art Org, a group of artists from Northfield, MN who, in conjunction with Latino artists from the twin cities, participated in large-scale steamroller prints.

A few months ago I, and other students printing at the Plains Art Museum Hannaher Studio, volunteered to help this group print their woodblocks. So I arrived bright and early Sunday morning to set up for visitors and get my job assignment. I was expecting to be cleaning rollers, getting supplies and other menial jobs, and was delighted to find that not only did I get to mix up the ink for one of the blocks, I got to spend most of the morning actually rolling up the block!

The piece I got to help with was a large bison including all the participating artist's names in the bones. It was a really interesting work, and certainly a feat to roll up.

Below are some images of the roll up, registration system (which just included shishkabob wires and holes) and the steamroller pressing the paper to the block, along with (of course!) the final piece.

 

Isn't is lovely? It's about 4 x 8 feet!