Printmaking

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/180174

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Open Access
Ian Rhodes: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Rhodes, Ian, artist
The artist's statement: My print work has focused on a mixing articles of the past. I find and rearrange old photos digitally which I then use to create prints. This sequence of processes creates images that have a mixed up context, they contain unrelated images from the past filtered through distortions of the printmaking techniques and digital manipulation. I try to create works that hint at narrative but fall apart when one is pinned on them, therefore making any narrative open ended.
Open Access
Elisabeth Ortiz: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Ortiz, Elisabeth, artist
The artist's statement: Textural Printing -- Textural mark making has become a foundation for my artwork and through multiple processes I have begun to explore the possibilities available. Initially I make textural marks on my plate surface whether it is zinc or wood. I allow the surface of each media to guide my vision for a complex or simple texture. With zinc I have been able to explore a rollercoaster of possibilities for complex marks and textures. I use acid baths to etch my plate to various depths with and without complete control, depending on the acidity from day to day or plate to plate. With this initial process I am able to create a plate that is structurally changed from a smooth surface to a more geographical feel of deep crevices, lines, and openings. The tactile quality of my plates is what provokes my artistic path and guides my printing process. Each plate creates its own unique structure and I create a unique color palette that compliments the textures. Content in the structure and color palette I use the process of viscosity to create a layered color and textural effect in one print. The process of viscosity has assisted in the exploration of my artwork and it continues to hold my interest. I have found a path that I can pursue and explore for years. The complexity of viscosity intrigues my knowledge of process and artistic conception. Before viscosity I began to explore the idea of texture and surface with wood. Although there is more personal control over each mark made, I allow the grain of the wood and the tools to guide my hand to create unique marks and cuts. With wood the complexity of marks is not initially seen in each print but a foundation of textural surface is left on the wood plate. This texture invokes my decision in the marks made after each other as well as the colors I use to accentuate each unique surface. Although my woodcuts are more of a simplistic venue for my artwork they are complex in the multi-plate layering. I choose to print multiple plates that complement each other's marks and the colors I create for each layer are mixed to invoke a distinctive conceptual feel. Through each surface I am able to manipulate my prints to achieve a tactile state that invokes my artistic process. Although I focus on viscosity and woodcut, I am not limited to the processes at my fingertips, I utilize the fine lines of etching and engraving as well and the visual textures of soft-ground and sugarlift. My prints are continuously exploring the textural marks that are possible. As an artist I have found a new appreciation for texture and its idiosyncratic potential through printmaking. With this new venue to create conceptual art that represents myself as an artist I hope to explore its possibilities though other media forms.
Open Access
Anthony Hood: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Hood, Anthony, artist
The artist's statement: In coming to Colorado State University, I discovered myself as an artist through the Printmaking concentration. Through this concentration, I was allowed to establish my work in a contemporary context. I feel this concentration has given me confidence in having a place in the arts, giving me a substantial and broad starting point. I made a series of experimental works which might not have a proper place in the arts and other work that will be easily enough to match into a typical style or process. Out of everything I have done, I can say, I didn't quite know where or what I was doing a majority of the time but I did know I had deadlines and ambition to see them out. My work as a visual artist, specifically in Printmaking, is to entertain the private or public eye. I have always been interested in bringing people of the community a minute impact of enjoyable creativity. It doesn't have to be enjoyed for extended amounts of time because I wouldn't be obsessive about it. I try to arrive at my work with a positivity attitude of direct intent, ambition to finish my goals, and continuing the wheel instead of reinventing it. These three points are how my work plays into the modern contemporary art because it's been the most consistent means of making art during my undergraduate degree. My direct involvement with the contemporary arts is my passion of continuing my concentration in a means of cross mixing media to find what isn't there or obvious apparently. I state this for reasons such as my work dealing in experimentation outside the general elements of printmaking. I use outside resources to come to a finished print, and don't stick to what is known. I have had made myself diverge from the normal mark making techniques and imagine a composition that uses both formal and experimental aspects. Typically, my work is out in left field, they seem to come at random, and don't maintain seriousness. They are whimsical and slightly kitch-y pieces derived from the idea of showing something bizarre or out of place. They create a reaction of bewilderment, followed by a moment of childish amusement. The works are meant to brighten up, or make a brief feeling of enjoyment. My work isn't meant to be in your face or potent but a means of striking small bits of emotion.
Open Access
Amanda Thomas: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Thomas, Amanda, artist
The artist's statement: My artwork is an attempt to find spiritual order in an ever chaotic and imperfect world. My work tends to focus on control and stability, however in more recent works I have learned to embrace the results of automatic and both unconscious and conscious drawing decisions. My body of work assimilates control and chance, and some pieces reflect both simultaneously. I create works focusing on organic animal forms, utilizing them as a vessel for my emotions and thought-processes, as well as placing spiritual emphasis on them. Humans often connect to animals in certain ways, reading particular emotions for different species, therefore creating spiritual outlets through those animals; I utilize this to my advantage in my works, forcing emotions out of them that could only be done by depicting certain animals. Concurrently, my work explores the relationships that humans have with not only the animals that I depict, but with other human beings. The void of emotion that has become ever present in human interactions intrigue me, particularly my own lack of emotion towards others. I am interested in sharing imagery that I feel strongly connected to in order to record viewer reactions, so that I can experience the full range of emotional connection and witness it in others. Through these drawings, I feel closer to my audience and I hope that they feel close to me.
Open Access
Emily Roan: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Roan, Emily, artist
The artist's statement: From the smallest manifestation of material to the largest, I find no separation. The space between is alive and intelligent. Space is the womb for ideas to collect and take form. Intelligence guides each unique fractal in a sublime dance. This dance is what I investigate in my work. Through pattern, chaos and various paradoxes I find in nature, I create organic drawings that communicate my fluid state of mind. My work reiterates the same thought in varying ways, that unity is reality. I intend to communicate the relationship between my perceptions (emotions) with my experience. The part of my mind that is quite and intuitive essentially IS the experience. These qualities or dualities that reside in my mind are reflections of the nature that I observe. The intuitive characteristic in my mind being space and the emotive response or perception I embody being form. In my drawings I blur this line of separation between the observer and the observed, because deep in my mind resides the awareness that they actually create each other. Through my process of drawing I recreate this connection of non-duality. I transform with the piece I am creating. I no longer am a separate entity. I tune into what it needs to grow and respond genuinely. Like a feed-back loop, or an infinity symbol, we exchange information, while simultaneously transforming each other. I experiment with materials in order to change their original state so I can create texture and depth and sublimity. Salt, ink, water, acrylics, and glue on water resistant surfaces have the tendency to be unpredictable, which nurtures the feedback loop I try to create with my work. Because of this process I have developed, each piece has its own connection with me, as if they are artifacts of a particular present moment. I hope to create a space of stillness with a contradicting intention of activity for the viewer, putting them in a paradoxical situation I often find myself in naturally. I want to evoke a subtlety of perception, a quietness that creates a deep presence. I hope my audience connects my work to organic forms they may have experienced before while they experience them in a new and unpredictable way. My work has an underlying and subconscious intention as well. That intention comes from an inner awareness that each one of us contains the power and potential to improve humanity and humanities connection to Earth's ecosystem. Our power comes from our connection to everything through the rippling of energy thought and feeling. My mission is to inspire the individual to embody the mindset of the dreamer, the awakened, and the innovator through my own organic symbolic language that can be interpreted universally as well as personally.
Open Access
Kathrine Finley: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Finley, Kathrine, artist
The artist's statement: As an artist, I am inspired by the dualities of the intangible and tangible world. I have always been perplexed by what we find visually pleasing collectively, as well as individually. What one person finds beautiful may be dreadful to another, yet there are certain things that can be unanimously seen as pleasing in general. There are, also, certain intersections of beauty/safety and ugliness/danger, which we can't decipher as either or. In my most recent body of work I have been exploring the natural world and how certain elements of it can exhibit these dichotomies. I have been investigating the natural world in hopes that I can draw the viewer closer, in order to see the tiny space, as well as push the viewer outward to see the vastness of space as a whole. I am working with very small viewing windows that represent the shapes and patterns of our world either in an extreme close up, or macro view. I am interested in abstracting our world through a type of viewing window, either extremely zoomed in or expanded outward. My aim with this series is to engage with imagery that is ambiguous. I want to portray scenes that may not be readily recognizable, yet still can be comprehensible as something environmental. I want each piece to be able to stand alone, but like parts of an eco-system that work together, I want these pieces to be experienced symbiotically. In creating these pieces, I have been implementing an ancient form of printmaking, which utilizes carved woodblocks as the printing matrix. I chose to work with woodcuts for the reason that these prints have traditionally held a close connection to nature, focusing on the curiosities of our world.
Open Access
Francis Fahnestock: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Fahnestock, Francis, artist
The artist's statement: My body of work focusses on creating visual relationships of shape and color. The interaction of shapes and the space around them is a primary focus of many of these works. This is to try to bring attention to the norm of a rectangular composition. The deeply etched lines and aggressive marks of the intaglio pieces embrace process and mark making that is unique to printmaking. The range of value and marks creates visual interest without depicting any particular image. The non-objective nature of these pieces is to emphasize the importance of the shapes and their composition rather than an objective representation. These pieces also embrace the printmaking process and try to allow randomness and chaos found in certain processes in both intaglio and lithography. This work reflects curiosity in process through mark, presentation, and repetition.
Open Access
Abbie Downes: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Downes, Abbie, artist
The artist's statement: My work deals with how I perceive the world around me, as most art does for artists. When it comes to printmaking I find I represent the natural world around me using two different methods. As a travel junkie I am always longing for my next trip and studying the world I live in. A section of this body of work includes simple, bright designs that represent specific landscapes around the world from warm desert lands to harsh cool mountains. I also explore the style of maps and create my representation of countries around the world using fine lines and bold color blocks. Both styles depict how I view the natural world and the constant beauty that existed long before us.
Open Access
Alexandra Lake: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Lake, Alexandra, artist
The artist's statement: I am inspired by natural forms that possess an indefinable attraction. I only pursue the exploration of a structure if I cannot pin down exactly what is appealing about it and, therefore, feel obligated to give it a sense of autonomy in my production of it. My general sense of isolation and vulnerability both for myself and the existence of other living things also influence what figures I am drawn towards. I treat my work as an investigation into the false sense of security that comes from our biological existence. I find that the contradiction of nests is a great platform to explore this fragility. While proposing safety and comfort, nests are themselves delicate structures that provide no assured protection. Lately, I have been extending this metaphor to bodies. In my work, life forms become nested 'selves'; perpetuating their existence by relying on their biological structures to let them continue. These forms embody the anxious empathy I find when realizing that our greatest bond to our surroundings is our shared quality of impermanence. The process of printmaking allows me to explore my interests through repetition and layers. Without personally understanding their motivations, I work with images through different compositions and additions of printed layers until I believe that they are represented authentically. Through the intentional use of different printmaking techniques, I maintain some control over the appearance of my forms. However, I enjoy exploiting the unpredictable nature of some techniques as well as the 'black box' nature of the press to allow the forms to emerge with a life of their own.
Open Access
Benjamin Morrison: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Morrison, Benjamin, artist
The artist's statement: In this collection of works I am exploring an idea of a kind of role reversal between the mind and the body. In the world we live in there is a priority in the physical. The mental processes of an individual has a clear influence on the physical actions that they employ but does not seem to have a direct influence on the world in the way that the physical does. In these works I have created a reality where the mind does have this direct influence on the physical. The physical form of these characters is entirely controlled by the mental state that is most prominent in the actor's system of beliefs.
Open Access
Jackson Connolly: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Connolly, Jackson, artist
The artist's statement: My work seeks to combine the two worlds of digital and the analog printmaking. Currently working as a graphic designer, I have taken many of the skills and design techniques I use in my profession and have carried them over into my printmaking work. In the end I'm left with work that blends together photography, digital graphics, typography, and found imagery with classic mark making techniques. I tend to focus on classical or mundane subject matter and attempt to breathe new life into it either through distortion or the use digital manipulation. My background as a designer shows through heavily in my work with much of it having a highly graphic feel. But my work seeks to challenge both the conventions of the design and printmaking worlds by embracing the unknown and variable aspects of analog printmaking and combining it with the rigid and technical precision of digital design. All in all my work is a commentary and seeks to challenge the common conceptions we have about printmaking, modern design and the art world in general. By challenging these conventions I have created a body of work that is both well designed yet evokes strong emotion through strategic use of printerly mark making techniques.
Open Access
Duy Nguyen: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Nguyen, Duy, artist
The artist's statement: Traditional printmaking provided a means for me to explore and implement graphic design orchestrations in a way that marries the digital to the physical and intent to content. Each tangible print serves as a documentation of my design pursuits through deliberate planning and intentional organization of colors, shapes, textures, and negative space. First and foremost, I aim to initiate a cohesive graphic experience for the viewer, which through its simplicity, is aesthetically engaging, harmonious, and balanced as a formalized composition.
Open Access
Carolyn Stern: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Stern, Carolyn, artist
The artist's statement: As an artist viewing the world, I am intrigued by places I have not explored. As a kid and even now, I am always curious about what is beyond the hill in front of me and then what is beyond that. I will look out on a view and wish to be on the next hill over so I can see what the world is like from over there. I recognize this tendency as an insatiable craving to know and to see it all. Unfamiliar landscapes carry a sense of peace and mystery that I am attracted to and interested in encapsulating. Even though I know humans have traversed over virtually the entire world and no landscape remains unobstructed from humanity's influence, there is still a sense of intrigue surrounding a landscape that appears seemingly free of development. Naturally occurring formations and growth create a visually stimulating world that is complex, yet harmonious. These forms, as well as the feelings evoked upon experiencing nature, have inspired my current body of paintings. Within my work, the visual language used translates the landscape from realistic to the daydream world of color, brushstroke, and texture that encourages the viewer's own internal investigations of place and the desire of the unknown.
Open Access
Austin Armstrong: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Armstrong, Austin, artist
The artist's statement: My work uses visual forms to explore the interplay my personal origins, various religions perspectives, and the way in which we interact with our world. I investigate these concepts by reflecting upon my own origins, both thorough ancestral and spiritual lenses. My imagery is largely drawn from of my personal history, instances of family illness, and archetypes of religious iconography. These tools give way to a wide array of interpretation, while also letting the viewer a glimpse into the concrete and personal space that I create from. A person's beliefs are shaped by the world view that they inherit, as well as the intentions they take in addressing all given situations. This work is a visual symptom, produced by my intentional pursuit of truth amongst my personal beliefs and practices.
Open Access
Ashe Mardinly: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Mardinly, Ashe, artist
The artist's statement: I've always found interest in invoking responses from people. As a child this is usually accomplished by making a mess, and smiling cheekily at my parents as I did so. However art allows for a much more refined process of invoking reaction out of a viewer. This can be done a number of ways; my method of choice is through the abject. Abjection can be loosely defined as a significant horror or discomfort one feels when presented with something that acknowledges the mortality of life, of the body, or of one's self. Comfortable or not, there is a sort of power associated with the notion that at any given time, at any given place, one's mortality can be challenged. Through representational form, process-based abstraction, and direct use of language, I strive to create a point of view that encourages viewers to give thought to the mortality of life. Within this I hope not to cultivate fear of the vulnerabilities faced in life, but to engage the inescapable truth of mortality with confidence.
Open Access
Keenan Zeller: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Zeller, Keenan, artist
The artist's statement: As a small child I was fascinated by nature and made a point to surround myself in its beauty. I had a very strange childhood. I was often getting into trouble and acting out in unique ways, which made my parents worry. On road trips I made my mother pull over when we passed a cemetery. I would lose myself wandering around the grassy fields with cement tombstones and flowers, both dead and alive. I was interested in the dead as much as I was with the living. I was the perfect blond hair blue eyed child with an unusual interest in death. This led me to have an appreciation for life and the fragility of living things. My work is made from a durable material that is easily manipulated. It can become a fragile, delicate object such as a rose petal, or can be a strong sturdy object. There are endless possibilities with clay. I have the ability to make something feel alive. Being present with the clay and pushing myself to see how far I can't make it is not only thrilling but gives me a sense of power in the studio, a sacred space. Feeling and manipulating the material to surrender to my touch and pressure allows me to provoke different ideas. There is a sense of being present, and there can be times of absence. Each stroke or touch, intentional or not is embedded in the material and remains once fired. The mark of the hand or tool dictates even more pattern and detail I aim to show in my work. This gives my work the ability to feel alive or dead, stagnant or dynamic. This gives the voids in my work a purpose, they become mysterious, eerie, and one may get lost.
Open Access
Jenna Lewis: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Lewis, Jenna, artist
The artist's statement: For me, creating art is about the process and the reaction that I have to the materials in front of me. And there are few materials that captivate my interest the way Printmaking does. I was instantly intrigued with Printmaking: the materials used, the manipulation of those materials, and how the image on the unique surface transfers onto paper. In my early work, I was more focused on the end product of my prints. However, after learning more about the medium, my art later became more about the extended process rather than the final product. This is where my practice transitioned. My art transformed from aiming for a specific result to appreciating the process. I got to a point where I was learning when to let go and let the process take over, and at other times take back control and successfully manipulate the medium. From this process emerged a common theme throughout my work: human manipulation of the natural world. I began to utilize the natural textures that Printmaking provides. I also began to search in nature for textures that were intriguing to me. As my intrigue with textures in nature evolved, I became interested in taking massive landscapes and tough materials and transforming them into an abstracted composition. I had several series using intaglio, lithography, and relief woodcuts. Each medium has lent itself to a new way to approach my concept. As I continue my work, I believe the process of creating art will bring greater enjoyment with each piece created. Printmaking has truly transformed my practice, as I have learned to let the process and materials inform my final work.
Open Access
Taylor Smith: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Smith, Taylor, artist
The artist's statement: The images I create serve as forms of meditation and catharsis. Initially, my process begins by mentally dissecting an issue in my life. My thoughts surround the people and scenes involved, and I begin to translate them into physical compositions. As each line, dot, and texture begins to accumulate, metaphorical labyrinths come to life. These labyrinths are my thoughts and feelings manifested onto the surface. It is only after I first produce from this uninhibited stream of consciousness that I enter an introspective stage of reflection and structure. This is where I can step back and observe the marks, react, and proceed to alter the tangible work itself. I make decisions to either conceal or reveal content by applying more layers of color or overlapping marks. I choose to abstract my work to maintain the privacy and intimacy of my own literal narratives, thus allowing the viewer to interpret the work from their own collection of life experiences.
Open Access
Maggie Mark: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Mark, Maggie, artist
The artist's statement: I am very interested in the cognitive relationship we share with the aesthetic harmonies found in nature. By abstracting patterns in nature and re-arranging them through printmaking and painting processes, I am able to better understand how these systems are intrinsically integrated. Each investigation of particular biological forms and linear details reveal the phenomenology of a newly interpreted order. Specifically, my color palette choices direct the viewer to explore their own relationship with nature as a formally presented aesthetic experience. This uniquely human capacity is what I implore the viewer to reflect upon in the hopes that these works can deepen their engagement with the symbiotic relationship we share with the natural world during our fragile and seemingly fleeting lifetimes.
Open Access
Rochelle Peeler: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Peeler, Rochelle, artist
The artist's statement: "Alice laughed, "There's no use in trying,' she said: 'one can't believe impossible things.' - 'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen." Through the Looking Glass, Carroll, Lewis - To be as curious as Alice yet be assertive as the Queen, making art isn't an impossible thing especially when it comes to printmaking. My art reflects my love for storytelling and making up characters. I love finding ways to create narratives and made frozen windows to worlds; some known like "Alice in Wonderland" or "Through the Looking Glass" and others from my imagination. When I create art I found myself engulfed in the process, like in a trace or self-meditation, and just keep adding more and more: from layers of ink from the studio to the globs of hot glue, I find myself pushing boundaries and try to make the piece as different as I could make it. In the end of this process I have made two different series, the "Self-Monster Portraits" and the "Wonderland Series". The "Wonderland Series", I turned an innocent story into a dark one by rearranging parts of the original story. It was my way to have fun while making art and create a world that suggests criminal activity from our beloved Alice. Think of it as a dark comic with the canvas as the panels. As for the "Self-Monster Portraits" is about one person and how she sees herself; throughout the series we see her change form and become different characters to suit the environments needs, like a personality switch. Though in real life, which is represented with real objects, she appears normal and has distracting features to draw away from her faults that marks her skin, to the sides of her reflects her insecurities and "ugliness". As her environment changes, so does her armor... making her a different person each time.