10.12.09

Carly Jo



long live good posture

The spine is the center of our bodies and when it is happy, we are healthy. The last decade has been an epidemic of failing health in the US, with the exception of Colorado (which is the LAST state to not be declared obese). I have been doing a lot of worrying about our future health, and therefore happiness. It's imperative that our spines are aligned/healthy to ensure the maximum amount of active playing so that we can be the best species that we are capable of being. Think of all the things you miss out on when you have poor posture! We need to take care of ourselves, for we only get one body! You don't have to add all that (you know how i can get all fired up about stuff like that haha). Im living in Vail as a ski instructor, and life is good. How can I complain? I still don't exactly know what I would like to do with the next four years, but i got offered a waterski coach job and yoga instructor at this resort for the upcoming summer.. so who knows. I am debating between a chiropractic career and an art professor career. AH! I miss the shop SO MUCH and am so grateful for everything I learned from it. I learned more from the shop of love about art and life than any other class I ever took in college. 

9.12.09

Maggie Lach




Hello Printmakers, past present and maybe future! Since graduating I have walked, sometimes limped, several different roads and adventures. I continued printing for a year, taught art classes, worked as an admissions office associate, worked in an art gallery and market in Queenstown New Zealand in search of a graduate school, and then came home for back surgery. I am currently living in California ultimately on the search for a masters program. Right now I am coaching a swim team, teaching art classes, and tutoring at a local YMCA in southern California.  I am interested in lo MFA program at Long Beach.  Sadly due to lack of resources and print shop love I have only recently been painting and drawing. This painting is a series of small paintings of symbols from around the world on cherry wood panels. While living in Queenstown this past year I had a lot of time to really study the Maori culture, which is a major theme in this painting. I have a passion to combine symbols from various indigenous cultures from around the world and in the process becoming aware of the similarities and differences.

7.12.09

Karen Meulendyke




We have two emotions, love and fear.   When these emotions are triggered we respond in a way of hyper-arousal, or hypo-arousal according to Dr. Bruce Perry, M.D.  Opening the doors and welcoming peace within these arousals is when we can heal.

Heal yourself so you can help heal others.  It is the only way in a selfish world.

Tony Vang



War and Death

Kari Haugh


Hankies and Pillow-talk Cushions
 


I've always enjoyed sewing, my grandmother taught how to use a machine when I was seven years old.  Two summers ago I got to take a screen printing class at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis and was able to combine two things I love: sewing and printing.  I collected vintage bedsheets and other cheap fabric remnants to print on.  Then I turn them into adorable girly things like pillows and handkerchiefs (shown here) or aprons and sundresses, handbags. etc.  Unlike my other art, these pieces have no hidden symbolism or deep, dark and profound meaning...these are simply just aesthetically pleasing and functional little masterpieces.  And fun!

6.12.09

Libby Hansen





"The New Sacrifice" is a print from the senior show.  How sad I don't have new stuff!
I am teaching at Mauston Schools about a half hour away from our home and loving it! 

Eric, the Lost Hansen brother



Sloth, Moth
Engraving 6” x 8”


My attempt to continually work with animals as my subject matter and working in a series format has brought me to portraying interesting and unlikely relationships between species of animals. In my research I have come across examples of symbiotic relationships.  For instance, a moth feeds off algae that is developed in a sloth’s fur which acts as a camouflage tool in the lichen ridden trees of Costa Rica.  The sloth is unharmed by this relationship and the moth receives an important food source.  As I explore this further I will look to consider this as a metaphor for human relationships.

Becca DeLapp



Revelation

8"x10" woodcut

It seems like ages since I've breathed in the inky air of the shop and felt the sting of acid on my paper and plate-cut fingers.  Being gone from UWL and away from fellow printsiblings has undoubtedly affected me and my art.  Creating in an open environment has proven frustrating and liberating at the same time.  Without critiques or feedback to guide me in positive ways, I find myself wandering and exploring in directions I was too busy or too fearful to tackle as an undergraduate. Since graduation I have been experimenting with lino and woodblock cuts.  I was quite apprehensive at first but have grown to really enjoy it.  I had more than my share of stab wounds from a sharp tool gone awry before i started to begin to feel comfortable with the subtractive method.  I am still exploring different kinds of wood for printing as the grain makes a huge difference in terms of difficulty making cuts.  The physical process of woodcuts is something I really enjoy and it has been a great way for me to continue printing at low expense and with minimal supplies.  I've been using water-based inks as well so they are easy to come by and a breeze to clean up, not to mention non-toxic.

I am currently in Minneapolis working for Apple and volunteering with a group called Bolder Options as a mentor for an at-risk inner-city youth.  Later this winter I may be transferring to Chicago to continue working with Apple while I look at more grad schools and explore more art and printmaking opportunities in the area.

check out my blog: vandercooking
or my website for more fun

Dawn "Dawnatello" Demaske




Architecture has always been an interest of mine along with art.  Many of my prints from my days in the printshop had images of architectural structures, such as my Ireland series from my study abroad experience.  Currently, I am concentrating on photographing contemporary structures.  The image I submitted is of the courtyard of the new modern art addition to the Art Institute of Chicago.  I found the design and its construction very beautiful and interesting.  I consider the new wing a piece of art in itself.


www.demaskephotography.com
www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=3959027

Adam Line



Falling

A quote to think on:

What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life.
-Michel Foucault 

Seth Klekamp



Future Fear

60” x 90”
Digital Photography
1 of 6 pieces in an installation titled “Future Fear”


You can look at the entire installation and each individual photo on my website  www.sethklekamp.com

Future Fear addresses the empty promises of modern civilization.

The photos look with a cynical eye at agricultural and technological revolutions, institutions, socialization, culture, discontent and the struggle to define our existence.

After 10,000 years of building a culture, I don’t think we are more free or happy then we were when we started.  I think if anything we are more afraid, confused and empty.   We work for money to define ourselves out of fear of a future without guarantee.   We take our discontent out on other people, animals and the planet.   In our struggle to give meaning and secure a future, we are pretty much destroying any chance we have at one.


I think a wise man once said:

It is you.
Cause a pressure drop.
Oh yeah pressure drop, a drop on you.
When it drops, oh you gonna feel it
Know that you were doing wrong.


- Frederick "Toots" Hibbert

Bonnie Schetski


In our reality the human mind is constantly bombarded with imagery, decision-making, and the stresses of day-to-day life. It is precisely these memories, thoughts, and experiences that are the basis of my work. I am interested not in the realistic representation of these entities, but in exploring how the mind deciphers and reassign meaning in an abstract manner. Through the process of meditation the conscious and subconscious mind take away the normal context of thoughts and experiences – fragmenting them to create new environments and entities for the imagination to explore.

Automatic drawing serves as my meditative process. It allows me to focus on the basic elements of mark making, tonal quality, and composition rather than focusing on the outcome of the final piece. Using my intuition, each mark suggests the placement of the next through constant reevaluation of the entire composition. Drawing and printmaking are my primary mediums, and I am strongly connected to their physical traits, which have a similar methodical process of meditation. Upon completion of a drawing or print the second meditative process begins – contemplation. Marks begin to take on symbolic characteristics of the natural and unnatural world in which I decipher for myself and discover the meaning and title for a piece of work.

This body of work has grown out of my graduate school studies while living in Las Cruces, New Mexico and focuses on the transcendental aspects of nature and spirituality. Since I have returned to the Mid-West, my work has become an exploration for understanding the mind, how symbols collide together within a piece of work while providing answers to questions and thoughts. This process of creating holds endless possibilities as a means of my personal expression to the environments in which I inhabit.

to see more, go to: myartspace.com and search artist - Bonnie Schetski
The same is true for Inkteraction http://inkteraction.ning.com/profile/BonnieSchetski

Blue

Madman or Genius?  Masterful Artist or Hopeless Heroin Addict?  Is it true that his body emits a faint blue light due to hisstrict diet of blue candy? These are not questions for which we mortals have answers.  All we do know is that Blue is a real life legend.Here we have displayed a work done by Blue when not under the influence of heroin or a blue candy induced sugar high.  Painted in 2005 on the walls on an elementary school in rural Tanzania, these two mural panels depict the nation’s history.  From left to right, one first goes back to ancient history, where this part of East Africa was likely the very cradle of human kind, the place where humans learned to hunt, make fires, develop complex forms of communication, and create their own pottery.  Toward the middle of the mural one sees the domestication of animals, a technology brought by the Bantu speaking people of West Africa, and followed by that, the rise of agriculture as we move to the second panel.  Moving into more recent history, we see a Portuguese slave trader, a German colonial governor, and a British colonial governor respectively.  Then Julius Nyerere, the nation’s first president, sweeps the colonialists away as Tanzania peacefully gains its independence.  Towards the far right we see corn stalks steadily growing as Tanzanians hope for a brighter future.  The forms and design are meant to capture the colorful balance and rhythms of rural Tanzanian life – both cyclical like the rising and falling of the sun and linear like the passing of time.


 


Blue’s Email:  mattraboin@hotmail.com
Blue’s Address:  somewhere in Peru
Here’s a Website Blue made:  www.tanzanianstudentfund.giving.officelive.com (not currently accepting donations)

5.12.09

Kimmy Valentine (a.k.a. Kim Van Someren)



2A-100
Drypoint
7"x 7"
2009

Markmaking, response, and the idea of weight in proportion to scale are defining aspects of my current work. This print, the second print in the series, A-100, is one of the results of my response to the plate's previous image by methods of scraping/burnishing the plate, aquatinting, re-aquatinting, drypoint, softground, sugarlift, open bite, and other etching techniques.

Jen Licary


The Tree of Life
 

I know many have seen this print before, but it is still one of my favorite print I have done. 

The Tree of Life
is a mezzo tint, with a map of the world chine-cole'ed on top.  The Tree of Life is very meaningful to me, in a way it grounds me.  Reminding me that color, race, or gender are not a factor in life, that we are all connected and equal.

Since I have graduated, I have not done anything to extraordinary and am still in the process of figuring my life out; which turned out to be more difficult than I imagined. I randomly moved to Kenosha because Lisa (my roommate for the past two years) moved there and needed a roommate.  I am interning at the Rockford Art Museum, which I really enjoy. There has been a little freelance design work, and I am also bar tending on the side for some extra money. Oh, and I miss the print shop and everyone in it.

Heather Neff




Been traveling around a lot since graduation, and finally have set some roots in Vermont for the winter! Tons of art on the east coast, and a lot of prints too! Excited to have some time to create a new series based on my current surroundings in nature, as well as the beautiful and magical farm I lived on in Maine. This image is a drawing that I completed months ago, after the completion of my figure drawing class. I am still fascinated by the human form and with this image I have used a layering technique to flip the image around so the female figure is embracing the reflection of herself. The image represents a confidence with the figure but also a sense of vulnerability, a need for support. I also focus on the treasures underneath the flesh, in this case the vertebrae. The vertebrae is a beautiful series of bones that lies within chakras and energy channels which is strikingly important to the posture of the figure. I wish that I could etch this image into a plate and print it.....I just don't have an available press, but when I find one, this will be the first image I work with! Peace and love. Heather Neff