Friday, February 5, 2010

Galleries, Lectures, and Internships. Oh my!

These last few weeks have been crazy!
I mentioned a few post back that I had some exciting news to share, and here it is!

Every semester the Hannaher Studio at the Plains Art Museum (one of, if not THE sole working print studio inside a museum) chooses an intern to work with the resident printmaker to help maintain the studio, order supplies, talk to visitors, and make sure the place doesn't burn down. You know, the usual. The position is competitive, and applicants submit a letter of intent and a collection of their images that then get judged by the resident printmaker, (my professor, John Volk) the head of education at the Plains (Andy Maus) and a third party member. I think you probably know where this is going.... they chose me! So a few days out of the week I head over to the Plains and work in the studio, interacting with the public should they wander in, and explaining the mystery that is printmaking. It's pretty exciting, and a lot of fun so far. Problem is it usually closes around 5, and I'm a terrible night owl, so that's taking some adjusting.

The other exciting news is this past week I helped install a show in the library at my college and gave a lecture with the other Excellence Scholarship recipients. Our lecture focused on the progression of our work over the years, and the concepts behind it. Usually these colloquium lectures are full of Freshman students, but there was a great mix of faculty, Freshman, and friends. All in all probably around 100 to 150 people showed up, and the whole thing went over as smoothly as we could have asked for. It was a bit nerve wracking, but a great learning experience overall.

I haven't forgotten about my last post either, regarding linocut tricks. I'm compiling ideas as I start my third in the series (printed the first color tonight- yay!) BUT I want to hear from you linocut artists out there! What are some problems you run into when you print? What makes you want to stab your paper and throw your can of ink across the studio? Let me know and it might help me compile a more complete list. :)

3 comments:

barbara@sparrowavenue said...

problems with printing:
1. getting an even coat so it doesn't
blob.
2. curious (never done it) as to how
go about getting a gradation of
colour
Any secrets would be appreciated.
Looking forward to your tutorials.

Kellie Hames said...

Hi Barbara! Thanks for the response (and for your kind words on the last post too) I'll be sure to include both these issues in the next post. :)

WWE girl said...

Wow, Kellie! Your blog is very cool and much appreciated. I actually just finished writing you an enormously long list of my current questions and "troubles" with linocuts, mostly regarding large scale (3x3', 18x24", 2x3'), adding color to behind a "latticework", how to make a jig/register? and what you might know about printing on the different side of vellum. Unfortunately I guess google decided my post was too long and deleted all my words! My email is gal.fatale@gmail.com and I wil sign up to be a blog watcher of yours, if this is an option on the page. I would love, love, and much appreciate maybe just a phone convo, I could send you pics of what I've done so far and then you'd have a better idea if what I'm up against? None of the students in my dept. are doing linocuts, and the prof's attention is mostly on intaglio processes. Let me know if you can spare some moments, yah? Thanks so much!
~Emily