Thanks much for hitting me back with your thoughts on the last entry. I think consensus provides forgiveness for the modern, contemporary, uppity Art Museum because it does not have contact with much of the art that we make or interact with, nor does it dictate how we think of art. And that's great, I'm all for it. Still, we enjoy the occasional museum visit to enrich us.

Screen Printing in Studio 1Screen Printing in Studio 1

I attended my first art class this week. This header photo features the first trial art prints that the 8 of us created. The art was provided from earlier student work, so we could focus on the mechanics. This small class of adult strangers went from knowing next to nothing about screen printing to sketching an image and creating the screens that will become 3-color art prints next time we meet. I think that's impressive! We jumped right into it. With all the supplies on hand as well as the frames, dark room, washing station built into the functioning studio, there was little to interrupt the process of starting.

An objective for this course is to understand what kind of setup is required for doing prints at the scale I'd like to do them going forward in my own studio space. Based on what I've discovered so far, it's pretty doable without machinery using standard materials and with a couple trips to the hardware store for parts. The instructor was intentional about showing us several methods and materials throughout the process, giving us choice and encouraging us to find what fits for our style or for the outcome we want. For this first go, I've elected to do things totally analog. I took a dumb sketch from my sketchbook, copied it onto transparent vellum using a special marker with ink formulated to block light (important to the photo emulsion process for creating the screen). Then placed this copy between a light box and a screen that had been 'reclaimed' from its previous designs (though these were still ever so slightly visible but not able to be exposed to the light due to whatever kind of treatment that makes this work) for two and half minutes in a darkened closet.

Here my instructor demonstrates what happens next: remove the positive of my image that has now been light-exposed using water forcefully. I like this part. It came with warnings for ear damage.

All this was accomplished over three hours, a little sporadically, as each of us worked independently.

the fascinating artistic thing in all of usthe fascinating artistic thing in all of us

Thankfully, we did not waste time on words in this first class. We worked together not from any familiarity with each other, but instead a shared and therefore comfortable curiosity. And since the focus was not on us as individuals but rather as new students in the context of the class, it was easy to relax. For me, anyway, I'm not totally certain everyone felt the same.

However it came up at the start of our time together to make our introductions, of course. We were asked to tell the room our name and our experience with print-making. Getting this secondary answer out of us was painful. Silence followed each of our attempts. Some of us bobbed our heads in acknowledgement. Here were some answers:
"I have no experience, I'm an engineer."
"I have no art experience, I just like to try new things."
"Sometimes I draw, I dunno."
"I'm into a lot of different stuff."

I left class reflecting on this. I wanted to go back and give a real answer, one I started to compose in my head as I reached my car to drive home (thinking it a missed opportunity to say I run a print shop...lmao) It was difficult to look everyone in the eye for the first time and put experience into words.

At the same time realizing my personal fumble, I reflected on what I had seen in the studio in my work and in those around me. The later half of the class had flown by in no time at all as we each worked out a challenge. I shared my sketch with my neighbors and asked their opinion on a choice I had made. They were interested and genuine in response. We were solving it together. At my right side, a middle aged man was timid to begin his drawing, and watched me until he got up his nerve to stare under his nose at a blank page. When the instructor came around and complimented his fascinating drawing, he explained that his ultimate purpose was to craft an image that represented his daughter. This wasn't something he could have said in a short line about his experience with printing. Across from me, another student penned the softest, sweetest details of her puppy's face. Next to her, another brought a crazy animated goblin eating a sandwich to life with incredible resolution as if she'd done it hundreds of times. How could she have said that to a group of strangers?

It was everywhere in the room, this fascinating thing calling us to push a pen around. To speak about it would undo its spell, perhaps.

Yes, I really like art.