A wall of prints at the Southern Graphics Conference International at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin may be an unusual spring break destination, yet that’s where six of our students and College of Art and Design faculty Patrick Casey opted to spend their vacation.
The students, juniors and seniors in our Fine Arts department, attended the Southern Graphics Conference International, held at the decidedly not southern locale of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It was really just a big print party,” said Jaimie Hurwitz, a first-semester senior who got hooked on printmaking during the fall semester.
Traveling by train, plane and automobile, the Lesley cohort — Hurwitz, Braeden Baston, Christian Chipman, Casey Fisher, Elise Parker and Char Heuschkal — met up in Madison for four days of total immersion into the world of printmaking. One of the most versatile mediums, printmaking can encompass everything from traditional woodblocks to Jell-O printed using anything from a printing press to a steamroller.
At Lesley, the students have benefitted from Casey’s mix of traditional and modern techniques, but he encouraged them to attend the conference to get a bigger picture not only of what printmaking can be but also to make connections with fellow artists.
The students received half of the money for their trip through a grant from the Boston Printmakers, a Lesley partner that is also based on campus. They raised much of their remaining funds by selling their own work through a pop-up sale of the student-run print collective Press 304.
Before the trip, Casey was already impressed with his students — a curious, inventive, initiative-taking group. They likewise stood out at the conference.
“They blew people away, not just because they were kind, not shy, and super energetic,” said Casey. Their work also drew attention, from peers at institutions such as the University of Illinois and Kent State and recruiters from top printmaking graduate programs.
Casey had encouraged his students to view the conference as an opportunity to make lifelong connections, something he’s practiced in his own life. They took it to heart.
“When you’re in Boston in school by yourself, it feels like a small-knit group, but when you go to a conference where everyone is connected by this one passion we have, it was really beautiful,” said Fisher, a junior and the assistant vice president of Press 304.
The conference introduced students to techniques that will broaden their artistic practices. They learned how to make paper from the invasive kudzu vine and pigments from natural sources and printed lithographic stones using Sharpies.
“I love the process of research-based alternative printmaking,” said Fisher, who plans to spend the summer learning to make her own paper and inks.
For her part, Hurwitz was excited to see the broad scope that modern printmaking encompasses.
“It was just really cool to see how far you can go with printmaking and what can count as print,” Hurwitz said.
The students are now part of “the very small universe” of the printmaking world, and they’ll be better creators because of it.
“We’re not just artists alone in a studio,” he said. “We’re makers, we support each other as we’re learning.”
